Dark Path, Bright Light
by Zelith
Summary: It's been a year since Rose sacrificed himself to save Danny. When Danny's parents succeed in bringing him back, Danny is overjoyed. But something isn't right, and they're all too late to notice it. Sequel to Shadowy Rose, Dark Path. boy x boy, Danny x OC, don't like don't read.
1. Chapter 1

**And here is the sequel to "Shadowy Rose, Dark Path"! I have finally worked out a nice plot line for this, and I know exactly how it will go. **

It's been a year since Rose melted. It's been a year since my boyfriend sacrificed himself to save me from Plasmius. And it's been a year since I've been able to think about him without thinking about how he nearly died.

My parents collected the ectoplasmic puddle of goo that used to be my boyfriend and the shattered remains of his core and stabilized him. He was alive, but just barely, and it was like he was in a coma. He had little to no brain activity, and his core was repairing itself very slowly. Sometimes he reformed for small time periods, a second or two here and there. But it was like he was really there. Every time he reformed, Rose was in the same position; smiling, reaching out to me. I always reached back, as though if I could just touch him he would stay there with me; he always melted before I could touch him.

Everyone at school had been told he was very very sick and that was why he hadn't come back to school. Everyone knew that _Shadow_ had sacrificed himself for _Phantom,_ and no one knew that Shadow was Rose and that I was Phantom. Well, except my parents, my friends, and Jazz. They were the biggest reason why I hadn't snapped yet, being unable to see my boyfriend even in my dreams without remembering how he had nearly killed himself to protect me.

My parents were doing all that they could to jump-start his mind and make him wake up; they believed that if they could just make him wake up, his body would reform even without his half-repaired core. He wouldn't be able to use any of his powers, nor would he be able to transform, but he would be here. And I would be content with that. Anything to see my boyfriend again without the pain of his sacrifice clouding my memories of him.

My friends were right by my side the entire time; they didn't complain when I got angry over something ridiculous; they didn't care when I would get so depressed that I couldn't move; they never once even _looked_ like they wanted to just walk away. Sam and Tucker always listened whenever I needed to vent my frustration, and they understood my frustration too; Rose had been their friend as well. We were all relying on each other, and it made a sort of web of trust between us. We were there for each other, and it made it much less difficult to get through the days as we waited.

Jazz helped the most. She had nailed down all of the breakable possessions in the house, which really wasn't a lot because of what my parents did, and she let me scream and shout at her for no reason other than that I was angry and couldn't find someone to yell at. She never held it against me; she would sit there and let me hurl insults at her and I had destroyed her room more than once in a fit of fury. Afterwards, Jazz always held me the way she used to when I was little and had a nightmare, just whispering words of comfort in my ear as I cried and apologized.

I had never cried so much than I did the year during which Rose was sitting in a beaker as ectoplasmic goo. It wasn't all-out sobbing, but it wasn't just a few tears sliding down my cheeks either. I often didn't sleep for fear of having nightmares of Rose melting again; as much as I wanted to see Rose again, my mind couldn't conjure up any memory of him without thinking of him melting.

It was my birthday, April 3rd, when I finally got news of Rose. My parents ran into my room at 4 in the morning, and they shook me awake. It was Saturday and I had been expecting to sleep in, but once I saw their excited faces I knew that they had pulled Rose out of his ghost coma. They didn't even need to tell me; I jumped right out of bed, all thoughts of sleep forgotten, and I ran to the lab. Technically, we weren't supposed to run in the house because of how dangerous the house could be, but my parents made an exception for this.

When I got to the lab, I finally saw what I had been hoping to see for the past year. Rose stood in the exact center of the lab, looking exactly as he had when he had melted; he was in Shadow form, but his ghostly glow was gone. His back was to me, but I could tell he was trying to figure out what was going on. He hadn't noticed me, not yet; he must have sensed his own core though, because he coughed painfully and staggered towards the bulletproof case that his core was in.

It still wasn't completely reformed, and as I watched I realized that Rose wasn't completely reformed either. He was trailing ectoplasmic goo after him, and it followed him towards his core. He reached out silently as I watched, frozen in shock, and he placed his hand on the case his core was in. I could see his face now, and his one remaining eye was completely grey; I realized he couldn't see anything. His core pulsed as his hand come close, and yet his face twisted into an expression of fury and pain as he couldn't reach his core. His eye regained some color, though; it glowed turquoise a little.

As I watched him, he swung his hand at the bulletproof glass than encased his core; I wanted to tell him that that wouldn't work, I had tried that myself before, but my mouth wouldn't move. And yet, his hand smashed the glass to dust and shards. Rose panted, looking exhausted just from the slight movements he had made, but he reached out and touched his core.

It pulsed again, louder this time, and it actually began to repair itself quickly. Without the ghost who owned it, it must not have been able to repair quickly. But when its ghost touched it... Rose's core finished repairing itself after I found myself able to move again. Rose turned his core intangible and let it back into his body, and his ghostly glow returned. His eye regained its color completely, and he sighed. He blinked once, twice, and then he swung his head towards me.

"Rose," I whispered, unable to manage anything more than that in my unending joy at having my boyfriend back. He regarded me for a moment, and then a small smile came over his face. He looked like he was confused, and he probably was. His purple rings formed around his waist and spread, turning him back into the dark purple-haired boy I had known when I was a child. His hair fell back over his empty eye socket,

"Danny," came his voice, weak and raspy from disuse, and that was when I couldn't contain myself anymore. I flung myself at tiny Rose, tackling him with a hug. He stumbled back a little, surprised and still weak, but I felt a smile on his face. It was a confused smile, proving that he really didn't know what was going on, but he rubbed his hands over my back as a way of calming me down. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone, Danny," he said, his voice a little flat as though he couldn't hear himself, "but it's okay. I'm here now. You don't have to be afraid anymore."

I couldn't bring myself to tell him how worried I had been, how much I had missed him. All I could manage was a choked, "You're back."

***line break***

Rose was really tired, and I kept him company on the couch as he slept. He refused to let me carry him to my room, but he also couldn't walk that far. When Jazz woke up to find me cradling Rose's head in my lap as he slept, she nearly shouted for joy. She yelped as it was, and nearly woke up Rose. She hugged me tightly and pet Rose's hair softly before going to make breakfast. She figured that Rose would be hungry when he woke up.

For the first time in a while, I thought about Johnny 13 and Kitty. They had been devastated when Rose had melted, and I knew why now. Rose had pretty much been raised by them; he was pretty much their only child. The only thing that had stopped them from staying at the Fenton household (even my parents had wanted them to stay because they knew how much it would hurt to lose a child) was that Johnny needed to get fixed up at the ghost hospital and Kitty couldn't leave his side.

Kitty had left his side only once to tell me that Johnny's back had been broken in five places and that he would never walk again. He used a wheelchair now, and his Shadow usually wheeled him around. I wondered how happy they would be when they learned that Rose had reformed. I wondered how upset Rose would be when he learned that his foster father would never walk again.

For now, though, everything was perfect. And that was all I could ask for.


	2. Chapter 2

It became obvious very quickly that there was something wrong with Rose.

For starters, he wouldn't eat. When he woke up with his head in my lap, he had smiled softly and let me help him sit up. He had been awake for a little bit when Jazz had come back out of the kitchen, carrying a bowl of soup for Rose and a bowl of cereal for me. When she had handed it to him, he had taken it with a small thank you. But he hadn't eaten any of it in the half hour that my sister was upstairs getting dressed. When she came back down, she was rather disappointed that he hadn't touched the food.

"Rose, you should eat," she had said very gently, as though he was a very small child. He'd looked at her like she had suddenly turned into Spectra,

"I'm not hungry, Jazz. I'll be sure to eat when I do get hungry, though. Thank you." His voice had been flat still, and he'd looked immensely bored. She had nodded, as though this was to be expected, and she had backed off to go finish getting ready to go out with her friends. One look at her face, however, had told me that she was panicking. She had probably tried to tell our parents before she had to leave.

The second thing that was wrong with Rose was his voice. It was flat and emotionless, as though he was a deaf person speaking. There was nothing in his voice to suggest that he was happy, sad, angry, _nothing._ It worried me, and it worried Jazz too. He sounded very... _suppressed_ is probably the right word. He sounded very suppressed, like he was holding back all of his emotions.

The thing that tipped me off that there was something seriously wrong with Rose was that he didn't flinch when my parents told him they would taking a blood sample from him. He had always flinched before needles before he had melted; but all he did this time was stare at them with a disconcertingly blank gaze. He simply sat very still and let them take their sample, which was red with flecks of green swirling around in it like an early Christmas soup, and he watched them go to the lab with the same blank look.

"Hey, Rose?" I tried, reaching forward to wrap my arm around his shoulder.

"Yes, Danny?" His voice held an emotion there, but it was one I didn't recognize because it was so distorted. He turned towards me, letting me hold me close. He was alert, certainly, but he wasn't... well, he wasn't acting like himself. The Rose I remembered didn't act like this; he ate when he could because a ghost could attack at any time, he spoke with all the emotion a person could possibly hold, and he flinched away from needles and doctor's visits. This Rose was more like... more like a full ghost than a half-ghost. And that thought scared me.

"Are you feeling okay?" I rubbed his back a little, noticing that he seemed to be having trouble drawing in oxygen. He coughed as I did so, covering his mouth with one of his arms. He made a retching sound as he finished coughing, gasping for breath. I pulled him closer and let him rest against me for a moment. He soon pushed back, however, and I let him sit up again on his own without fighting him. I was really worried about him; what if he hadn't reformed properly and he was going to actually die this time?

He looked up at me with his bright purple eye and said to me, very slowly, without the slightest inflection of emotion,"Danny, I'm completely fine."

***line break***

Rose's friend, Kit, came by later without his other half, Cobalt. They were technically one ghost, but they liked to split apart and be called twins. Kit had this really weird ability to just _know_ certain things, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when he dropped in (literally) later that day around lunchtime. He dropped right into the lab where my dad was conducting tests on Rose, whose blood sample had revealed something that neither of my parents would share. My dad shouted in surprise when Kit dropped down right in front of Rose, but Rose showed no sign of shock at all. Cobalt wasn't around, so I assumed he hadn't split away from Kit.

"Hi, Kit," Rose said, emotionless, smiling like it hurt.

"Rose, I'm so glad you're okay!" the pink-haired boy chirped, flinging his arms around Rose. Rose froze, looking like he didn't know how to handle this explosion of emotion Kit displayed, but he awkwardly hugged Kit back. I, myself, chuckled a little; Kit was always so hyper and random. The ghost acted more like a small child than a 22-year-old. Because he had thought he was alive for a while, Kit had kept aging just like a normal person along with Cobalt. When he learned he was actually dead, he had stopped aging. He currently lived with Clockwork, who had been the one to break the news that he was dead to his face.

"Of course I'm okay, Kit," Rose sighed, no trace of anything remotely emotional in his voice. "Didn't Clockwork tell you I'd be okay?"

"Nope!" Kit pouted. "He made me wait until I was sure that you were okay!"

"I only reformed today, you silly duck," Rose laughed, a flat sound that was almost painful to listen to. "I'll go get you that glass of circletine I promised you before I melted..."

Rose left the room and Kit watched him, smiling until he was out of sight. Then he became sort of grave-looking. "That's a bad case of ghost syndrome, isn't it Maddie?" he said, cocking his head towards my mother. She froze and I stared at her, shocked.

"_Ghost_ syndrome?" I whispered into the silence. Kit turned to look at me next, his green eyes brightly glowing and shining like a cat's.

"Yes," he confirmed, nodding his head. "Ghost syndrome. Didn't... didn't anyone know that was it?" He looked sort of nervous now, shrinking in on himself.

"What's ghost sydrome?" Dad asked, looking suspicious. He had never really trusted Kit, mostly because Kit was very unpredictable and he was very prone to breaking out into destructive anger. He'd ruined a few of my dad's inventions like that while Rose was still melted.

"Well, when someone goes through a very long period of grief, say 10 years or so, they become more ghost-like; emotionless, hunger-less, and any form of emotion mentally hurts them. In half-ghosts, it can also happen if..." Kit glances away, looking a little guilty. "There's a 50/50 chance of a half-ghost developing ghost syndrome if they're in an ectoplasmic liquid state for a long time. It's more dangerous with a half-ghost, because the half-ghost will experience fits of anger or other negative emotions while afflicted. A half-ghost also doesn't have a _real_ need to eat, and all half-ghosts that have been recorded in the past, if they started as a human, have only ate out of habit and humanly need."

"Rose _did_ start out as a human," I told Kit, looking confused and pretty angry too. Kit nodded quickly.

"Yes, I know that. But when a half-ghost develops ghost syndrome, they find themselves locked into the mindset of a ghost. Ghosts don't need to eat, though we do enjoy eating, and since ghosts don't need to eat a half-ghost with ghost syndrome will probably find themselves unwilling to eat." Kit glanced away, looking very uncomfortable. "Ghosts don't tend to show their emotions, which is what led most ghost scientists to believe a ghost has no emotions. When a half-ghost is afflicted with ghost syndrome, they'll probably register no emotions whatsoever."

***line break***

Ghost syndrome.

Rose was in a ghost-like state of mind, so he thought of himself more as a ghost than a human. It explained his strange behavior, his unwillingness to eat, even his flat voice. What I wanted to know was _why._ Kit had said it was only a 50/50 chance. So why had Rose developed it?

Kit had also said that the best and the most effective method of getting rid of ghost syndrome was to treat the afflicted person as though they were human. It would bring the person back to their normal human-like state of mind. So at dinnertime, Jazz made Rose sit down("No floating!" she had snapped when he'd tried to discreetly fly away; she had tied him down the Fenton Ghost Fisher, and he wasn't happy about it) at the table and she made him eat the food that my mom put in front of him. At first, he ate rather reluctantly, but pretty soon he was eating as though he had never had any reason not to eat.

None of us really had any idea how to get him to have emotion, but it wasn't something that we were concerned about for the moment. Rose had wished me a happy birthday earlier when he'd noticed the date, and he'd forced emotion into his voice for me. The action of speaking with emotion had tired him, though, and he'd taken another nap.

After dinner, it was time for birthday cake. Rose declined having a piece, but he remained at the table (not like he had a choice, what with being tied to his chair with the Fenton Fisher) and made conversation with us. It was like he'd never disappeared; with the exception of the lack of emotion in his voice, he did his best to act just like he did before he'd melted. Rose certainly teased Jazz to no end with forced playfulness about her new boyfriend, which is something I'd done when I'd first found out as well.

Rose's ghost sense went off about halfway throughout dinner, something that surprised him. It showed through; his eyes widened and he nearly tipped over his chair. Mine went off as well about half a second later, and Rose motioned for me to sit back down. He untied himself and transformed, floating up.

"I'll get it, Danny," he chirped, a painfully happy smile on his face. "You enjoy your birthday." Then he was gone, phased through the ceiling. Jazz looked pretty confused.

"If he could untie himself that entire time," she wondered, "then why didn't he untie himself before?"

"He was probably trying to be polite," I answered. "Kit said that most ghosts really are polite. At least, polite by ghost standards. He was being polite by human standards."

"Maybe," she said distantly.

We made small talk while we waited for Rose to come back, and he came back after about an hour. He was battered and looked exhausted, but he showed no sign of pain even as Jazz and I relocated his dislocated knee but yanking him down from the air.

"It was just Skulker," Rose protested, tucking his legs under him in an attempt to stop us from bringing him back to the ground. It didn't stop us; Jazz jumped up and got one of his arms, effectively pulling him down to a point where he had to stand on the ground. My mother and father came back from the lab with a first aid kit, designed to help me whenever I got hurt. Since I healed very quickly, all it really contained were band-aids (more band-aids than I could count) and antiseptics to keep out infection.

Rose's worst wound had been his dislocated knee, though he also ended up having a dislocated elbow(something that he insisted was fine, and something my mother insisted on fixing. She got her way) and multiple bleeding scrapes.

"Did anyone see you?" Mom asked Rose as she fixed up his cuts. Rose tilted his gaze to the ceiling, his face devoid of emotion again. I settled down next to him, holding his hand; he smiled a bit at the pressure of my grip.

"Probably. There were a few people on the sidewalk who looked up and saw the fight. I don't think anyone recorded it, though." Rose shrugged, completely uncaring of what would happen. At least, it seemed that way, He was probably freaking out on the inside, like a ghost would.

Jazz checked YouTube on her phone, and shook her head laughing. "You were wrong, Rose. Someone did record you." She showed us a video titled _**Shadow is back!**_ which already had over a thousand views. "Everyone's pretty excited, Rose. This will probably be on the news tonight and tomorrow morning."

And it was on the news that night. The newsman speculated how Phantom would take Shadow's return. I chuckled and said to my family, "Oh, I think Phantom will be _very_ happy with Shadow's return."

Even Rose smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

The first time I fought a ghost with Rose again was on Sunday, right after I had called Tucker and Sam to let them know that Rose had reformed (and also to warn about the ghost syndrome thing so that they wouldn't ask and get that vague answer). We had been on the way to the park, Rose deadpanning as he spoke. He maintained a bored expression throughout our conversation, though I noticed he at least tried to look like he was interested. I got the feeling he really was interested in knowing what had happened while he had been in a melted state, but he just couldn't show it because of the ghost syndrome.

The ghost happened to be Skulker, big surprise. Now that Rose was all better, he intended to kill Rose for his... pelt.

"Dude, gross," I exclaimed, getting into a fighting stance. Beside me, Rose did the same, the look of unending boredom on his face. No was around; we made sure. However, before we shifted, Rose suddenly twisted and pressed his back against mine. "Huh?"

"Ember," he said listlessly, fixing his stance to mirror mine. I nodded, noticing the pop singer ghost now, and then we transformed.

I felt the white rings form at my waist and travel up my body, finishing in sync with Rose's purple rings. Briefly, I tried to remember if Kit had said anything about if being in ghost form affected the rate of which the ghost syndrome went away. Nothing came up, and I assumed not. Rose kept his back to mine, effectively proposing his method of beating these two; the back-to-back method. So he remembered.

A cocky smile drifted across my face, letting my feet leave the ground. The back-to-back method was one of the methods that Rose and I had created before the entire "Ghost Zone attacks Amity Park" incident happened. The way it worked was that we would keep our backs pressed together, to prevent any ghost from getting a cheap shot while we couldn't defend ourselves from them. If we needed to, we could turn and fight opposite enemies while still protecting each other. I felt Rose's core react violently when he tried to use his ecto-rays, instead sending lightning into his hand.

I felt its reaction because Rose flinched slightly, and there was the slight buzz of ecto-electricity before the quiet humming that made up his electricity sounded close to my ear. I couldn't risk a look back, but if I had I would have seen his white glow turn slightly yellow, and I would have seen Ember crackle with his electricity.

His electricity was looking for the path of least resistance, and it happened to be Ember. I was stuck fighting Skulker, the giant mechanical ghost laughing like a madman as we exchanged witty banter.

"So, how's that imaginary girlfriend of yours, Skulker?" I shot at him, smirking.

"She's doing just fine, and she's currently right behind you!" he shouted.

We kept shouting at each other, and I eventually felt Rose peel away from my back. That left my back exposed, but we were changing tactics right in the middle of a fight. Rose and Ember were on the ground now, and they were doing some sort of strange dance-like fighting. Rose kept forcing Ember's back to face mine, and he was drawing her farther and farther away. Suddenly, just as I defeated Skulker and turned to help Rose fight Ember, I saw the shift in his mood.

His eye flashed red and narrowed; Ember wasn't following him. In horror, I remembered Kit's words. _"__It's more dangerous with a half-ghost, because the half-ghost will experience fits of anger or other negative emotions while afflicted."_ He was having a fit of ghost anger, and it could only end badly. He very suddenly lunged for Ember, swinging his hand against the side of her head and shocking her with his electricity. Ectoplasm spattered over him, but he ignored it.

I stared at him, my green eyes wide with surprise and horror. He was breathing heavily, though his chest didn't move up and down like it should have. He twisted his hand back to me, wanting the thermos. I tossed it to him and he caught it without looking, sucking Ember into it. Skulker was already in there, and the thermos shook a little. No, not the thermos; Rose's hand was shaking. He was shaking.

I landed beside him, gently taking the thermos from him. He leaned against me, his face a strange contortion of fury and restraint. He was unhappy, and he was angry, and he was trying not to show it.

"Rose," I chided, using a tone that I didn't even know I could accomplish, "you don't have to hide your emotions from anyone."

"I know," he muttered, grabbing my HAZMAT suit and holding it tight, still trembling. "I know. But it hurts."

It hurt him.

***line break***

By the time we finally got to the park, it was at least noon. Rose's blank face was back and though he held my hand he had confided in me that he didn't feel comfortable showing emotion anymore. However indirectly he had told me, he had still told me. He tightned his grip on my hand when he saw Sam and Tucker, alerting me to them; I let him lead the way over, hoping that he'd seem a little more human if he led the way.

"Hey, Rose," Sam greeted, eating an apple. "What took you two so long? Did you take a little _detour?"_

Tucker snickered and did something with his PDA, probably making another bet that Rose and I had actually taken a "detour." Rose rolled his eye and gave Sam this _look,_ the look that would kill if looks could kill.

"If you can call Skulker and Ember a detour," Rose deadpanned, a slight growl to his voice, "then yes, we took a detour." He conveniently left out the quick kiss we shared, as though to make Tucker lose his bet on purpose. Knowing him, he probably was. Tucker paled a little at _the look_, but Sam only grinned a little.

"Well, then. That's certainly no small detour." Rose narrowed his eye and I was sure I saw red there again, and he bared one fang in a dangerous way.

"Be careful," he snorted, teasing forced into his voice actually pretty well (but I could see the strain it put him under to use emotion), "or else I'll go all vampire on you and suck all your blood out."

Behind us, two of the kids froze, watching Rose with wide eyes. He must have sensed them watching him, because he turned his head to give them his bored look. They backed away a little when he grinned, sharp teeth showing, and he chuckled dryly when they disappeared.

"I hope the Box Ghost gets them."


	4. Chapter 4

School was slightly awkward. Not that Rose didn't catch up quickly, but he was actually rather terrifying. His blank stare, coupled with the fact that he only had one eye and said eye sometimes flashed red, was enough to scare even Dash off.

Dash had actually been laying off of me this year; he was either worried about getting grades or he felt sort of bad for me because Rose had been "sick". Though, the two kids from school apparently went around telling everyone that Rose was a vampire because no one was willing to get close to him all day. Not that he really cared, I could tell he was having fun with it.

Someone walked up to Rose, a brave freshman, and even that kid was stuttering and shaky around my poor boyfriend. My boyfriend, however, had been in the middle of a conversation with Sam about how meat was disgusting or something similar and he was _not_ pleased to be interrupted by a nosy freshman. In fact, the moment right before, and I mean _right before_, the freshman tapped his shoulder he very suddenlt whirled around and glared at the kid.

"_What?_" he growled; I could see the ghostly anger rising within him, and I could see how much he was straining to hold back from attacking.

"I-I w-was just w-w-wondering if t-the rumors are t-true!" the freshman cried, cowering back from Rose's apparent wrath.

Almost immediately, Rose calmed down. His hair, which had begun to bristle as though he was an animal, smoothed back down (or at least as smooth as it ever was; Rose's hair never fell flat. Ever. He was cursed to eternally messy hair just like me) and he smiled threateningly. "Which ones?"

"T-The ones about h-how you're a..." The freshman glanced around nervously. "V-Vampire."

Rose leaned in a little, and I felt myself get a little jealous. If Rose wanted to, he could very easily kiss the freshman. Of course, though, Rose didn't. In fact, he appeared to be pretending to sniff the air around the freshman's neck. The freshman squeaked and shied away, looking paler than Rose did.

"I see," the dark purple-haired boy purred sulkily. "And tell me, what's your name?"

"J-Jason..."

"Well, _J-Jason,_" he mocked, "you smell pretty good. I bet your blood would taste very nice..." Rose leaned back into a standing position, and he grinned dangerously.

"W-What about F-Fenton?" he said nervously, glancing at me nervously. Apparently, no one had forgotten how I had accidentally slippe dup this morning and used my ghost speed in a relay race Mrs. Tetslaf had set up.

"My boyfriend?" Rose grinned wider, showing off white fangs that he had placed on his teeth earlier that morning; he had insisted on Jazz driving him to the store the night before and he had bought fake vampire teeth that could be glued onto his real teeth. "Well, I suppose I'd have to share your blood if he caught me taking it all for myself, wouldn't I?"

Jason backed up, clearly terrified. Rose's next words sent him running.

"Now, I'm hungry... how about we go outside for some... ah... _fresh air?_"

Rose laughed quietly as the poor freshman disappeared down the hall, as though he thought he could outrun the "vampire". Rose headed over to me and punched me on the air, and I hissed in mock pain. I caught his mouth in a kiss but quickly let go, leaving him internally pouting - I could see it in his eye.

"If anyone asks," Rose clucked in a whisper, wagging his pointer finger at me as though I'd done something naughty, "the reason I was sick was because you're the one who turned me into a vampire after I begged. It's a better explanation than saying I had melted."

"Alright," I surrendered, chuckling myself. Rose was much more freely emotional around me, having grown comfortable with it; he didn't show much emotion even when we were alone, but he at least wasn't blank-faced and monotonous the entire time while he was with me. Last night he even insisted on laying on my chest before I could go get changed out of my school clothes. "I guess we'll have to get teeth for me too."

We were very quiet during the conversation, and Sam laughed when she heard it. "Really, you two? You're going for the vampire cover?"

"Well, why not?" I defended, smirking playfully. "No one will suspect our ghost forms, it'll explain our lower body temperatures, and it'll explain any accidental super speed or super strength."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Well, what about a _heartbeat?"_

"We don't have hearts," Rose deadpanned, giving her a very well hidden look of exasperation. "We have cores which take the place of our hearts and our cores beat very faintly, unnoticeable by any non-technological means of checking, and they only beat like 5 times per minute anyway."

I blinked; I hadn't even known that much. Rose caught my eye and he smirked with a _tell-you-later_ look in his eye. I knew that look. It meant he wasn't going to tell me until we were completely alone in our room in the dead of night or something like that. Sam only gaped, and Rose shrugged. He wasn't going to be telling her anything, apparently.

He smiled a little, though it was a little painful to see. He headed off to his own class, Science, while I had to go off to History with Sam and Tucker. Though Rose didn't really need us in his class; apparently Science was his best class not counting Music. He had gotten put into the Music elective because everyone knew he was a rather good singer, though he only sang when he had his headphones on and either knew that no one could hear him or didn't realize that people could hear him. I'd caught him multiple times in the bedroom like that, just singing along to his favorite songs and the songs so loud I could hear them through the headphones.

I only hoped he would be okay until Lunch. He tended to go into a kind of emotional stupor whenever he spent long periods of time away from me or Jazz, the only two people he really showed any kind of emotion around. He showed Jazz less emotion than he showed me, but the point was that he did feel a slight bit comfortable around her.

***line break***

Of course nothing was as simple as I'd hoped. Rose and Paulina had apparently gotten into some kind of argument in Music class, and she had lashed out at him, hitting him on the blind side of his face; in retaliation, he had bitten her hand, broken her nose, and tried to snap her neck. He hadn't bothered to wipe the blood from her hand off of his face, but he did spend a good two minutes explaining to Paulina that no, she would not turn into a vampire because he didn't want to have to deal with her for all eternity. She had, obviously, been let down.

He sat at the lunch table with us now, pressed against my side as he silently fumed. He was a scary sight to see; his eye had actually turned red and it was fading very slowly. Coupled with the fact that he refused to get Paulina's blood off of his face(he said it was "a warning to all who decide to touch me without my permission." He had blushed a little and muttered something about ho I was exempt from the "no touching" rule), he was a downright terrifying sight to behold. He was only simmering by the time lunch was over, though he hadn't touched a bite of his fish salad. When someone had muttered to him "Why?" he had said that Paulina's blood had given him indigestion and that he'd be taking the last bit of his anger out on said nosy person if they bothered him again.

Needless to say, Rose was quickly becoming a very terrifying person in Casper High.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own the song that I have put into the story. I also don't own Danny Phantom nor any of its characters. (I just realized I've never put that disclaimer anywhere. Huh.)**

Rose had to go back to Music after lunch, because it was double-electives day. When he came out of the Music room to where I was waiting for him to head to our last class of the day together, he looked carefully blank. That meant he was either really depressed and didn't want me to see it, or he was absolutely bursting with happiness and he didn't feel comfortable sharing it with the entire hallway.

I found out for myself when he slipped me a note in English saying that he had been able to show emotion through singing without hurting himself, and that he was going to be performing in the talent show. He needed a partner for the song he wanted to sing, a song from the show _Adventure Time_ (which he adored, even though he denied watching it to anyone who asked him about it, despite the fact that I had caught him multiple times watching it), and would I like to be his partner before the Music teacher made him do it with Paulina?

I wrote back, _I'd love to, you know I would, but then there's the question, "What happens when a ghost shows up?" Not if. WHEN. You know that a ghost will show up just to ruin everything._

He sent back his reply quickly. _I've already gotten Ember to agree to be the guitarist for the song. I don't think any other ghost will show up. (And yes, I've made her promise not to use any of her powers.)_

_Still, I can't. You know I can't sing._ He was disappointed with this reply, I could tell from the way his eye narrowed a little. But he sighed and simply gave me a small, understanding nod.

***line break***

The talent was today, three weeks from the original day from which Rose had told me about it. He had gotten better at faking emotion, and he said it didn't hurt as much around Sam and Tucker anymore. With me, it was completely painless; he was free around me, probably because I was part ghost like him.

Rose hadn't had to team up with Paulina, as Paulina was a judge for the songs sung. Ember walked onto the stage behind Rose when it was his turn(he was the last act, best for last, huh?), wearing a disguise. Rose had painted Ember;s guitar with washable paint to hide its real look, and Rose had a headphone-microphone on. He hooked it up wirelessly to the speakers and began to sing.

"La da da da da,

I'm gonna bury you in the ground...

La da da da da,

I'm gonna bury you with my _sound..._

I'm gonna drink the red

From your pretty pink face,

I'm gonna-"

Paulina interrupted the song. "Rose, this song isn't school appropriate!"

"Oh, you don't like that?" Rose snarled. "Or do you just not like _me?!_"

Rose growled and Ember took up a different tune, Rose switching into a much harsher voice as he sang. HIs emotions were running free, I could tell just form watching the way his eye sparked... _turquoise..._

"Sorry I don't treat you like a godess,

Is that what you want me to do?

Sorry I don't treat you like you're _perfect,_

Like all your little loyal _subjects_ do.

Sorry I'm not made of sugar,

Am I not _sweet_ enough for you?"

Rose's eye became wide with surprise and realization as he sang the next line.

"Is that why you always avoid me?"

Then his anger peaked again, and he snarled out his lines again.

"I must be such an inconvenience to you!

Well,

I'm just your problem,

I'm just your problem,

It's like I'm not

Even a _person,_ am I?"

Rose laughed at his last line, a short snippy laugh that showed his annoyance at keeping up the vampire cover. It was getting to him.

"I'm just your _problem._

_Well, __**I **_shouldn't have to

_Justify_ what I do.

_I_ shouldn't have to prove

_Anything_ to _you!_"

Rose gestured to his body, his eye narrowed and sparking turquoise. No one else seemed to notice it, but did this mean Rose was getting over his ghost syndrome?

"I'm sorry that I exist!

I forgot what landed me on your _blacklist,_

But _I _shouldn't have to be the one

Who makes up with _you,_

So..."

Rose hung his head then, hiding his eye behind his bangs.

"Why do I _want_ to?

_Why_ do I _want_ to?"

Ember whispered into her own microphone (I noticed she had a voice changer...), "Even though I'm not."

"I'm just your _problem,_

I **_know!_**

I'm just your _problem, yeah!"_

Rose fell silent, letting Ember play a show instrumental. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, silky even.

"**_O-oh~_**

**_O-Oh~_**

_**I'm just your**_

_**I'm just your**_

_**I'm just**_

_**I'm just**_

_**Your problem!"**_

Ember played another, longer, instrumental while Rose caught his breathing. He was fuming, I could see it; but he'd also seemed to have forgotten that this was the talent show, not the Music room, where the entire school could hear him...

I sneaked a glance at the A-listers, who looked astounded that Rose could sing so well under such short notice. After all, this wasn't the song he had auditioned to play. He had tried to sing it, but Paulina apparently didn't like it. She should have known better than to get his mad; maybe she was hoping to be a vampire? I smirked, knowing that she'd never get that wish unless she wished upon Desiree. Neither I nor Rose were real vampires, and no one else knew except for Sam and Tucker.

Rose began to sing again.

"I'm just your _problem,_

I'm just your_ problem!_

It's like I'm not

Even a _person,_

Am I?"

A note of nervousness crept into Rose's voice during that last sentence; he had been pondering the question of whether he and I were real people or not since we were half ghost... Sam was recording Rose's song, being an _Adventure Time_ lover herself. She loved Marceline the Vampire Queen, and this song was one of hers. Suddenly I wondered if Rose had set this up with Paulina..

But no... if he had, then why did Paulina look so terrified?

"I'm just your _problem._

So,

Why do I _want_ to?

Why do I _want _to?"

Ember whispered into her microphone, "Make up with you."

Rose opened his arms wide, a crazy grin on his face. He stared at the pretty A-lister with undisguised contempt and triumph.

"It's all so _pointless_

Because

I'm just your..."

Ember cut off her guitar right before Rose sang out the last word.

**"****_Pro-oblem."_**

***line break***

Rose was immensely happy when he came up to me after the talent show, not caring that there were other people around. He hugged me tightly, and then he punched Tucker (with a half-angry, half teasing, "You never cut out the lights like you said you would do at the end!") and then he gave Sam a fist-bump.

"You were right, Sam," he laughed freely, carelessly. "Singing in front of the entire school and singing a song that was sure to get Paulina to make me angry was a perfect way to get rid of the ghost syndrome."

"_Wait,_" I gaped, "you _knew _about it?"

Rose snorted, giving me a playful look. "Well, _duh._ All I had to do was wait until you fell asleep the day after I reformed. I knew something was wrong and you _do_ talk in your sleep, dear. Sorry."

I only face-palmed.

***line break***

After Rose's ghost syndrome went away, Rose acted more like himself. He was much more happy and carefree, and he was finally able to show emotion without almost killing himself with the effort. Jazz was overjoyed, having known about Rose's plan to get rid of the annoying sickness, and even my parents were happy. Rose spent more time singing openly too, trying to make sure that the ghost syndrome wouldn't come back.

Even though Kit told him that it was a one-time thing, no matter what, Rose refused to let his guard down. Everything finally seemed to be getting back into a nice order. At least, it would be that way until Kitty and Johnny came to see Rose. And they were coming tomorrow. I could only hope that Rose wouldn't kill himself with guilt from seeing Johnny in a wheelchair; I knew that he'd think it was his fault for not protecting his foster dad better.

But it wasn't his fault, and it never would be.


	6. Chapter 6

**Alright, I don't want to seem like I'm begging but some feedback would be nice. I like to know that you guys are enjoying what I'm putting out; a simple "Liked this chapter" is absolutely perfect. If you don't like something, all you have to do is tell me and I'll try to fix it to make the story more enjoyable. For example, if you say "Your pacing is terrible and you need to do a better job," then I'm going to attempt to make my pacing better. I, however, will not respond to rude reviews nor will I do anything to make the story more enjoyable for those who are rude to me. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

**P.S. I TOTALLY KNOW WHERE I'M GOING TO BE HEADING WITH THIS NOW**

The next day was a Saturday. Rose was pacing; he knew that Johnny and Kitty were coming (thanks to my sleep-talking). Jazz had tried to calm him down, but he had snapped at her in a very un-Rose-ish way, though he did sigh and apologize to her very soon after. It almost seemed to me that my boyfriend was _afraid_ of seeing his ghost parents. I mean, even more afraid of seeing his ghost parents in the state that they're bound to be in than he is of one of my dad's malfunctioning inventions? _That_ says something.

My boyfriend paced the lab anxiously, wringing his hands and fretting like an old woman. I told him this and he laughed nervously, refusing to look me in the eye. Then he went back to pacing. His behavior was odd, but I knew why. He hadn't seen his parents for over a year, when he was used to seeing them at least once every month for Johnny to "kidnap" him and bring him to Kitty for hair-styling. His most recent memory of them was over a year old, and it wasn't exactly the best memory.

When Johnny and Kitty did show up, Rose froze in place and trembled. He looked like he was going to cry. I respectfully left the room after offering both ghosts water and a snack, which both declined. I didn't know what would happen, but I knew that Rose wouldn't want me to see him cry the same way I wouldn't him to see me cry.

***line break***

**Rose's POV**

Danny left really quickly after my parents showed up; I thought maybe Danny still didn't trust them completely. They had, after all, caused a bit of trouble in the past. But no, I realized it was because I was about to cry. He knew I wouldn't want him to see me cry.

"Daddy?" I whispered, unable to force myself to look away from the wheelchair where Johnny now rested. He gave me a crooked smile.

"Hey, kiddo," he laughed, a forced laugh (I had become really good at detecting fake emotions after my ghost syndrome went away), "you haven't called me Daddy for a long time."

Kitty hugged me tightly and dragged me over to my foster father, allowing him to get a good grip on my chest(was I really still that short?) and also allowing him to pull me into his lap for a nice hug. I laughed, easing the tension a little, and hugged him back.

"We were afraid that you wouldn't reform," Kitty whispered in my ear. I nodded to show that I heard her, and I edged myself off of Johnny's lap. I was sure that I was far too heavy for him, despite the fact that being half-ghost made me only 57.9 pounds, max.

"Well," I said lightly, "you couldn't _really_ have expected me to stay as goop for too long. It gets rather boring just sleeping all the time." With that, the tension in the air broke and we all laughed; Danny re-entered the room and I made him sit down with us to play Go Fish, one of the only card games that I had ever really gotten the hang of since my ghost parents had often played it with me when I was younger.

***line break***

**Danny's POV**

Johnny and Kitty stayed for a few hours, and Rose and I got a good winning streak against them at Go Fish. We were playing in teams, and we were actually about to win when my parents came home. They didn't trust Rose's parents much, and the two had to leave very quickly to keep themselves safe. Rose, I noticed, was a little upset to see them go.

I flew Rose and I up to our room after picking up the cards, just to hide the fact that we were in the lab unsupervised. We weren't really supposed to do that, not with all the anti-ghost weapons down there. I curled around Rose, ignoring his feeble (and not to mention reluctant) attempts to escape the cold I radiated from my ice core. Tomorrow I'd be bringing Rose to meet Frostbite. Knowing Frostbite, he'd call Rose not a servant like he does with my friends, but my mate.

And technically, it's true.

**Sorry that this is short, muse wasn't easy to find today.**


	7. Chapter 7

Rose shivered even in his winter clothes and protested as I dragged him farther into the Far Frozen, and he was really unable to much more than keep moving along with my pulling.

"Why does your friend live all the way out here?" my boyfriend(in his ghost form to keep himself from freezing to death) complained, trying to keep up with me. I just picked him up in response and kept moving, ignoring his squeak and then allowing a small smile to drift across my face as he snuggled close to my chest. Even I was warmer than he was in this never-ending blizzard, and that was quite a worry for me. But none of Frostbite's patrols had passed by yet... Just as the thought that maybe Frostbite's patrols wouldn't show up, one did.

"Halt!" one shouted, Polaris I was pretty sure. He was a rather good sword-fighter, if I remembered correctly. "Who goes there?"

"Danny Phantom and his mate, Polaris," I called, feeling Rose shiver in my arms. His face, already pink from cold, turned a brighter red at the word 'mate'. "He's cold, though. Would you mind bringing us to the village?"

"Great One!" Polaris gasped, grinning now. Sometimes it took them a bit to distinguish my hair from all the snow. "Of course not, oh Great One! You and your mate," Rose turned even more red, if that was possible, "shall be escorted to the village immediately."

***line break***

Frostbite was happy to see me, if anything else. It used to get on my nerves how all of the Far Frozen people called me "Great One" all the time, but I'd gotten used to it over the years and it no longer bothered me. "Great One" was not my name just as much as "Danny Fenton" and "Danny Phantom" were.

"Great One, it is good to see you!" Frostbite boomed, placing his furry hand on my shoulder. I smiled up at him, and he quickly noticed Rose in my arms. Rose had given up trying to insist he didn't need to be carried and was now just hanging onto my neck, letting me carry him without so much as a whine of protest. "Come," Frostbite invited, leading me to a warm igloo where Rose wouldn't freeze, "we will talk more inside."

Once inside, Rose seemed to become more comfortable. His tense body relaxed in my arms and he seemed to be struggling to stay awake now. I rubbed the top of his head, knowing he didn't like that, and it at least woke him up a little. He opened his turquoise eye and glared at me, a murderous look that quickly stopped my petting. He grumbled and sat up, shifting away from me to sit next to me though he did lean most of his weight on me.

"You feel better, Rose?" I laughed lightly, knowing how easily angry he got when he first woke up. Sure enough, he glared at me again but it didn't have the same fury to it, and he eventually just humphed and turned away from me. I laughed again, a little more forcefully. I let him sleep.

"Great One, is your mate not well?" Frostbite asked, having watched the interaction carefully.

"Need coffee," Rose muttered, his full weight against me again.

"He's just not a morning person, despite the fact that he wakes up really early in the morning every day," I assured Frostbite. "If you have some kind of caffeinated or sugar-filled hot drink he could have..."

"Certainly, Great One," the big yeti rumbled, asking one of the other Far Frozen people to get Rose a hot chocolate. I wasn't sure how awake Rose was but he made a slight noise and shifted ever so carefully which made me think he was waiting for that hot chocolate. "Now," the Far Frozen leader laughed, settling down opposite of Rose and I, "what brings you to the Far Frozen? If your mate is not ill, and I see that he has reformed, then surely there is nothing of us you require?"

I shook my head, my own grin settling on my face. "I wanted Rose to meet you and your tribe, that's all. Though maybe I should have made him wear more winter clothes. I forgot how cold it is here." The yeti grinned wider, and he roused Rose by shaking the other halfa's shoulder. I tried to warn him against it, I really did, but he wouldn't listen to me. He ended up getting bitten, and Frostbite pulled back his bleeding hand in surprise. "I tried to warn you. He's not very friendly when he first wakes up."

"But his beverage is here," Frostbite muttered, holding out the drink. Rose twitched and opening his eye, looking grumpy and very, very tired. He hadn't slept much last night, having been busy trying to fight off ghosts without me. He'd wanted me to sleep, but I'd woken up at 5 in the morning courtesy of the Box Ghost anyway. "Ah, hello, Little One," Frostbite greeted Rose, apparently not minding that Rose had just bitten him and made him bleed. "Your hot chocolate is here."

Rose grumbled and sat up, shivering a little bit. The drink seemed to warm him up and wake him up, though, because when the drink was gone he shook his head and stared at Frostbite. "Whoa," he said, surprised, "I didn't think that when Danny said he was taking me to meet his friend Frostbite, he meant Frostbite the leader of the Far Frozen. This is a pleasant surprise, though I don't suppose you remember me." He glanced at the now-empty cup in his hand. "Or perhaps you do."

"You know Frostbite already?" I asked, feeling my grin bubble up again. If Rose already knew Frostbite, then we could totally start the giant snowball fight right away.

"Yes, Great One," Frostbite chuckled, "The Little One and I know each other quite well." He glanced at Rose, laughter lighting up his eyes. "Though, it has been quite a while since he was last brought to see me. And it has certainly been a long time since the last time he bit me."

"Again?" Rose groaned. "Did I really end up biting you again?" He sneaked a glance at Frostbite, grinning like a crazy kid. "Though I guess that's your fault for trying to wake me up _before_ shoving the hot chocolate in my face."

"I suppose it is," the yeti boomed. "Now, how about a snowball fight...?"

***line break***

Rose quickly got used to the cold of the Far Frozen now that he had drank the hot chocolate; he explained to me that it was enchanted to keep the drinker warm for hours. Kitty had often brought him here when he was younger to try to get him to learn to adapt to cold climates, but it had never really worked. The most it accomplished was giving Rose bad colds every time they went back home. Now I knew why he absolutely hated winter.

Rose did actually manage to stay in the game for a while, being the smallest target on the field. He eventually started to freeze though, his lips turning bluish-purple, and he got hit with at least three snowballs. He laughed and headed inside, drinking more hot chocolate so as not to freeze to his complete death.

By the time we had to leave (lest we be late getting back home), Rose was tired and grumpy all over again. Rose was only ever himself when he was fully awake. I ended up having to carry him home, my boyfriend being lazy and refusing to move unless I carried him. I was happy enough to do that, though; it meant that I didn't have to worry about him getting too tired. He had, after all, participated wholeheartedly in the snowball fight and had lost much more energy because of it.

When we got home, Jazz was waiting for us. She didn't look too happy.

"Danny," Jazz began quickly, "Mom and Dad got home early and they know you went into the Ghost Zone without their permission."

Oh no. I was going to get grounded for this and Rose probably would too, who hadn't done anything to try to stop me. This would be such a _fun_ conversation.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or any song I've put into this chapter. Enjoy!**

Long story short, Rose and I almost got grounded. Key word: almost.

Rose managed to get us out of it by saying that I had taken him to see his parents. He'd gotten snippy with my parents when they tried to ground us, putting his hands on his hips while pursing his lips like the prissy girl he sometimes acted like.

"So, I'm not allowed to go see my parents in the hospital?" he'd said with one eyebrow raised. "And Danny's not allowed to come with me to make sure that none of our enemies tried to kill me or use me to lure Danny to them to get killed?"

My mother had stuttered and my father had just stared with his mouth open. Rose had smirked and grabbed my hand, dragging me away up the stairs. Now my boyfriend was listening to his music, his headphones pulled up over his ears. He was singing along to the song too, and if that wasn't the most adorable thing in the entire world then I didn't know what was. He had his back to me and didn't even know I was nearby and could hear him. It didn't help that I was invisible.

"You're so _annoying,_ you pitiful old man," Rose sang. "I'd like to help you but I don't know if I can. I thought you were _nuts._ But you're really, really, _really_ nuts." Rose paused for a moment, then made a sort of sighing sound. "Every time I move you find me and start hanging around... Just another lame excuse to see me, _man, _it's getting me down. You know I'm actually _glad_... to see you... Maybe I'm the one who's..." Rose made a real sigh then. "...nuts."

"Nice song," I chuckled from behind him, startling him enough to make him knock his headphones on. I pounced on him from behind and grinned mischievously as I pinned him to the bed. I kissed him and rolled away, making him whine from the sudden withdrawal of attention. We ended up in a tickle fight, which I won simply because I was bigger and stronger.

***line break***

Monday came around far too quickly for Rose. He and I both caught an ecto-cold, and it had different effects on us. I got a burning fever that made me feel like my ice core was melting and had to stay in human form while Rose became so cold he had to resort to staying in ghost form to keep from freezing.

Jazz had to go to school anyway, despite her knowledge on how to take care of halfas. Instead, my mother took care of us. Rose didn't like this and put up such a fuss at everything that she had to eventually tell him that if he didn't stop being a baby she'd wash his mouth out with Ecto-Removal. He had winced, and she had won.

Now we were just lazing around my room, unable to leave because my mother had put up a ghost shield to keep us here. Rose couldn't stop shivering, and I couldn't stop sweating. It seemed almost impossible that he could freeze while I burned, but it was happening and we had to deal with it. Neither of our colds reacted to any human medicine my mother gave us, and she and my dad were busy trying to find a cure for it in the lab. Rose was just floating randomly above my desk, unable to get down, while I was stuck in bed, unable to get up.

We were considering trying to escape my room with sheer willpower when there was a loud _crack!_ from the center of my room. Kit stood in the center of my room, smoking from his apparent teleportation. He grinned wildly, but he didn't look the same as I remembered.

For starters, his hair was more a dark lilac color than pink, as though his normal bubblegum-pink had been mixed with a dark blue like Cobalt's. His eyes had changed as well. His right eye was still the vibrant forest green, but his left eye was an ice blue. Like Cobalt's. Suddenly, I remembered what Kit had told Rose and I the day Rose had melted.

_"Guess what guys? Turns out Cobalt and I are the same ghost! We can fuse together for a really powerful attack! But we like to stay separate; I like to see him."_

"Hi, guys!" Kit chirped, and as I watched his hair morphed to its regular bright pink and his other eye became green; Cobalt appeared right next to him, chuckling.

"Good job getting through the ghost shield, Kit," the blue ghost laughed. He awkwardly ruffled the pink-haired adult's hair as he glanced at us. "Though I think we may have come at a bad time."

"Nuh-uh!" Kit rounded on Cobalt, his eyes wide with childlike innocence and mirth. "Clockwork said now would be the best time!"

"You two talk with Clockwork daily, then?" Rose coughed in his arm, sneezing after a moment.

"We live with him," the pink-haired adult bubbled. "He likes having us around but we get really rowdy and sometimes he sends us on missions to do stuff that he doesn't have time to do. But we wanted to visit you guys and he said now would be the best time!"

Cobalt rolled his eyes, settling down his other half's shoulders. "I think he was wrong."

"We appreciate your company," I deadpanned, causing Rose to snort and choke on his own breath. Just then, my parents decided to burst in. The moment they saw Kit, they rounded their guns on him.

"Get away from our family, ghost!" my mother spat. Then I realized she had her eyes locked on _Cobalt._

"They aren't bad ghosts, Mom," I rolled my eyes at her. "They're Rose's friends."

"And we're actually both a ghost," Cobalt added.

"Well, half of the same ghost," Kit shrugged. He bounced right up to my parents and stuck his hand out, looking a lot like he was crazy. And matybe he was. "Hello, Fentons!" he giggled cheerfully. "I'm Kit and this is my twin Cobalt!"

Something told me we'd have to explain Kit to my parents, and that it would not be fun. Something also told me that we'd have to be careful to keep them from using Kit and Cobalt as test subjects (no matter how willing they might be).


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you yaoiluver4life for your review! :)**

My parents did not appreciate Kit's cheerfulness, and neither did they appreciate the fact that he could slide right through the ghost shield with his teleportation.

"Did you know that Clockwork's been teaching us how to use his abilities?" Kit asked us mirthfully, gnawing on an apple Rose had insisted he eat. We were in the library, and Cobalt was currently floating over Jazz's shoulder and giving her advice on her essay on ghost envy.

"No no no, ghost envy doesn't work like that..." he muttered, and then proceeded to explain it to Jazz while she nodded and crossed out and rewrote. Satisfied, the blue-haired ghost lazily drifted to a bookcase and began rummaging through the books to find something interesting.

"No," Rose told Kit, "we didn't know Clockwork had taken you both on as apprentices." Rose floated in the air a little bit, panicking when he noticed and trying to fall back down onto the chair he'd been sitting on. He failed and was stuck in the air for a while.

"Well, he is," the bubblegum-scented ghost laughed. "And I'm starting to get the hang of stopping time. Oh, but I found out something cool all on my own!" He sat up, his green eyes sparking with mischief. "I can slide through the time-stream if I find a big enough rip and I can go anywhere in time with it!"

"So... you're stopping time and then restarting time?" I simplified, causing Rose to snort and laugh and fall back to the ground. He landed on my lap, but it wasn't like I minded.

Kit rolled his eyes and facepalmed. "No. Stopping time is stopping time. Slipping through the time stream makes it _look_ like you're stopping time to an amateur, but it all actuality you're sliding into time. You cease to exist until you exit the time stream. With time-stopping, no one moves unless they have a Time Medallion. In the time-stream, you can still see everyone moving. But you can pause time at a certain place and re-enter existence in that particular moment. How do you think Clockwork gets around? He doesn't teleport."

I blinked, while Rose looked thoughtful. He had reverted back to his human form, but his ghost powers were going out of whack and we'd already seen that he had an alternate ghost form. In fact, he had to quickly jump off my lap right after Kit's explanation to revert to this other ghost form, since it was taller than I was.

Kit had explained the phenomenon as Rose's core accelerating in power much faster than Rose's ghost form could keep up with. In other words, this secondary ghost form was a new power that he could be able to access by will after our colds went away. My ice powers were growing at a spectacular rate; while I wasn't getting a new power, my core was growing in power as well. Kit had said that I might start teleporting soon.

Rose's secondary ghost form happened to be a giant ghost dog. A giant flaming ghost dog.

He still only had one big turquoise eye, but where the white of his eye should have been was a giant turquoise pupil that took up his whole eye, and his pupil was red. He was about half a foot taller than I was in this form, and his cold-flamed fur (yeah, he could actually be touched without burning) was the same color as his regular ghost form's hair. The flames around his body that acted as his fur twisted and curled on their own accord; it was like Ember's hair. It never stopped moving, ever.

He barked, turning intangible just in time. The library wasn't exactly big enough for him to stand in. Nor was it a tail-safe area. His tail wagged and would have knocked over many bookcases if he wasn't intangible. Making a sort of sighing noise, Rose thumped down on his side next to my chair, curling up so as not to hit anything as he became tangible again. Smirking, I hopped off my chair and buried myself in his fur. I heard him growl playfully.

Sometimes, I really liked Rose's new form. Such as when I was tired and wanted to take a nap. Like right now.

***line break***

"Whoo!" I shouted gleefully, holding onto Rose's fur tightly. Rose had told me that he never felt any sort of tug on his fur no matter how tightly I held it, so I always held it as tight as I could. As our colds had started to go away, Rose had learned to shift into his new form with ease. He'd shown my parents too, just so that they wouldn't shoot at him if he accidentally lost control and shifted in the middle of the house.

Rose was running me to school, happily trying out the speeds of which he could go as a ghost dog. So far, Tucker and Sam had gotten a reading of 200 mph, and Rose said he could have run faster. We weren't very willing to try getting his highest speed, since the Red Huntress (aka Valerie) had found us last time we had tried and tried to shoot "Shadow". "Phantom" hadn't taken that very well.

We arrived at the school and I saw Dash staring at Rose's approaching form, in shock and maybe terror. He must have been waiting for some nerd or geek to walk by so that he could pound them before class. Rose just jumped right over him and the fence, making his best jumping height record with someone on his back 10 feet. He landed right outside the school doors, which made his best jumping length record 15 feet, and crouched down so that I could get off.

"Thanks, Shadow," I said loudly, making sure that Dash could hear me. Rose shifted back to his normal ghost form in a flash of light, smirking knowingly.

"You're welcome, Fenton," he said just as loudly. It was a surprise to hear his voice so loud. He handed me a dog whistle (winking as he did so) and said, "If you need me again, don't hesitate to whistle." He fixed his electrifying (heheh, get it, since he had an electric core?) gaze on Dash. "And that includes when you're being bullied."

Then he smiled at me and faded away. It was actually just him going invisible and intangible at the same, but slowed down for an amazing effect. I pretended to act surprised and waved my hand through where he still was, feeling my hand pass through his cold body. I shrugged and said thank you to supposedly-empty air, heading towards the doors of the school. Rose exited the school in human form, grinning widely and dangerously. He was wearing the fake vampire fangs again, I noticed.

"Hey, Danny," he greeted calmly. "What took you so long? I've been here since 5 am. I had to attend the annual vampire meeting alone."

"Sorry," I snickered, "slept late. And then Shadow insisted on showing me his new power when I told him I could get here myself."

"If sleeping is possible," Rose snorted, taking my hand as a way of "forgiveness". Everyone was still wary around Rose and I whenever we made vampire references, and even Sam and Tuck were taking part in the joke.

For example, later that day when someone cornered Sam in an attempt to make her go out with them, she had growled at them that if they didn't unhand her, her "otherworldly" friends would attack him. He had sort of half-turned and saw Rose and I standing nearby casually, and he had decided to book it like a smart boy.

Later that day, Tucker told Dash that if he got within locker-shoving distance he should be careful at night. Dash had hightailed it like a coward when Rose had turned one corner and I had turned the other. The four of us were finding it extremely hilarious. It was very out of character for Rose, who was normally against pranking other people because of karma. Being around me and Tucker had, apparently, softened his resolve to never prank people.

Or maybe it was the fact that the vampire thing was a good cover-up.

***line break***

Our first ghost fight was with Skulker. Rose shifted into Shadow-dog form almost immediately, though I could see it wasn't intentional. He was still having trouble going between his new form and staying in his normal ghost form, like how I used to have trouble maintaining my ghost form. We fought Skulker for a little bit before we realized that he was trying to talk to us. Rose pinned him down with one paw (his paws were really big, they could have flattened a truck with one step) and told him to talk.

"Plasmius is coming back," Skulker growled at us, "That's what the Observants say anyway." At the mention of the Observants, Rose put a little more pressure on the suit with his paw. It began to dent. "Listen, children!" he growled and sparked. "I'm simply trying to give you warning so that you'll be prepared!"

Rose tipped his head to one side, contemplating, and then swung his head towards me. My messy white hair hung in my eyes, but I made no move to try to fix it. I'd learned long ago that it didn't obey anything except itself. I thought for a moment, then nodded. I readied my thermos, and Skulker actually looked pretty resigned.

Rose moved his paw and I sucked him into the thermos, trapping him. "Thanks for the warning, Skulker," I said, snorting, "but I don't think Plasmius is coming back anytime soon. Ro- Shadow destroyed him." I covered up my slip-up quickly, hoping that no one was around to hear it. Rose morphed back to his regular ghost form, sighing in relief.

"Whew. I didn't think it would revert this time and then I'd have to do something about it myself. These power surges are beginning to suck." Rose smiled, a shy smile that I hadn't seen in a long time. It meant he was being playful. He checked the area around us, and then grabbed my hand. "Let's go to the park."

It wasn't a question nor a statement. It was a demand. I lifted one eyebrow.

"Let's get back to class first, hm? Don't want to miss all of our make-up work. We can go to the park later."

Rose sighed in protest. "Oh, alright."

Unfortunately for us, we were unaware of the two girls who had hidden themselves nearby and had eavesdropped on our conversation. Keeping our secret would become harder, and maybe even impossible.


	10. Chapter 10

Rose sat stiffly beside me as we listened to the announcement made by none other than Star and Valerie, the two most popular A-lister girls.

"So, like," Star cheered, "Shadow and Danny Phantom totally go to Casper High! And we should, like, totally find out who they are!"

"Sounds like a terrible idea to me," Rose deadpanned, glaring at Star with a burning hatred I'd never seen. She must have noticed his eye flash to be the same as his ghost dog form's eye, because she gasped and tried to stifle it with her hand. He stood up, still glaring, and grabbed my upper arm. I followed him willingly, knowing I could escape his grip easily. Before we exited the cafeteria, Rose hesitated and stopped. Then he seemed to make up his mind, because he turned to stare at the two A-lister girls.

His stare alarmed me. It was turquoise. Then he grinned viciously, showing off his fake vampire fangs, and the entire cafeteria went

_black._

***line break***

Rose barked at me angrily, unable to shift out of his ghost dog form. He'd escaped to the school grounds almost immediately after shutting off the lights in the cafeteria by sparking profusely, and now he was angry at himself for letting his powers get out of hand. Should I say, out of _paw._

"You could have just blown the secret," I hissed at him, feeling profusely angry with him for the first time I could remember in a long time.

With a flash of light, he stood before me in his ghost form. I was in my ghost form as well, but I involuntarily flinched back away from him at the rage that he wasn't even bothering to conceal on his face.

"You think I _wanted_ to do that?" he snarled at me. The fake vampire teeth had fallen out when he'd transformed, but I was startled to see real fangs in their place. Taking on a new ghost form seemed to have had effects on his regular ghost half and even his human half. "Do you think I was _trying_ to blow it? Well, think again, you dipshit!"

His rage only seemed to grow when I stepped away from him. He looked ready to attack me now... I'd never heard him curse, ever...

With a huff of fury and a look of absolute loathing shot at me (which made me cringe), Rose transformed back into his ghost dog form and ran off. I knew I had no chance of catching him in that form; he was moving faster than I'd ever seen him move... I landed on the ground and reached out with my hand, as though to call him back, but I soon grew angry with myself and dragged my own arm back with obvious reluctance.

I turned my back on the spot where he had just been and kicked dirt with my white boot, lowering my head and stalking away from the place.

Before going to class, I changed back into Fenton and roughed up my appearance a bit to make it seem like Rose and I had had a row, or that I had just been running. When Mr. Lancer asked where Rose was, I said that Rose hadn't come to school that day. I didn't want to make things look more suspicious than they already did.

I couldn't concentrate the entire rest of the day, and I knew perfectly well the reason why. Rose wasn't sitting next to me, and I was the one responsible for that. I had pointed fingers, I had gotten him angry enough to _attack_ me. My boyfriend had probably restrained himself only through his very strong self-control.

And as I kept thinking about Rose running off, the angrier I got. But not with Rose, no. His reaction was completely justified. I was angry with myself.

***line break***

Even before I set foot in my house, I knew Rose was still angry with me. It was like an aura that surrounded the house, it was suffocating to say the least. My parents were still tinkering around in their lab, and the door to my room was locked. Rose was singing angrily and loudly, his music blasting. Sighing in resignation and letting the thought that I'd have to either sleep in the hall or sleep on the couch tonight drift through my mind, I slid Rose's homework under the door for him and started on my own homework right there in the hall.

The angry singing trailed off after a while and afterwards I just heard choked sobs. It made me even more upset with myself, because if I hadn't been so suspicious of him then he wouldn't be feeling as bad as he does and even he did, I would be there to comfort him. But this was my fault and I had to live with it. I finished my homework in record time, just an hour and a half. My still-angry boyfriend had taken the homework I had slid under the door and completed it, but he had rightfully refused to help me do my own homework.

After my homework was done, I just sighed and stayed outside the door, knowing that he'd let me in when he was ready to see me again. I just sat in the hall and let myself dwell on the thought that maybe Rose would run off again and that time I wouldn't be able to find him...

"Time out."

Everything around my turned grey and motionless, and Kit appeared in front of me. I had expected Clockwork, but I remembered in time that Clockwork had taken Kit on as an apprentice along with his other half. Right now, they appeared to be merged; Kit's hair was lilac in color and his eyes were the mismatched colors of green and ice blue.

"So, Danny," Kit mused, sounding much more like Cobalt (and I secretly wondered if maybe that was who was in control right now), "you and Rose had a row, did you?"

"Yeah," I muttered, defeated. There was no point in lying to the kid; he most likely already knew about it and was just giving me the chance to say it myself. Kit nodded slowly, blinking once, twice, three times.

"I just got finished talking with Rose. He's rather upset, you know. Rightfully so, I'd say."

"Don't rub it in. You're still a ghost, and I could still cram you in a Fenton Thermos."

"Ah, ah, ah," Kit laughed lightly. "I have one of those for myself, you know. I could just as easily freeze you in time as well and just suck you up. And maybe shake the thermos a little to teach you a lesson." Kit composed himself shortly after he had a bit of a giggling fit, proving that Cobalt seemed to be in control right at this moment. Indeed, his blue eye seemed to be glowing much brighter than the other... "But back down to business. He's not happy with you, and you're not happy with yourself."

"Sounds about right."

"Then talk about it to me."

His offer was so strange, so sudden, that I found myself unable to refuse; I discovered myself ranting to him about what had happened, lamenting my own foolishness. The lilac-haired boy listened intently, nodding every once in a while and staring at me with such a fierceness that I was almost unnerved by it.

"But there's nothing I can do to fix it," I finished, burying my face in my knees again.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," the self-proclaimed "ghost of illogicality" said quite cheerfully. I stared in wonder as the pink and green bled from his form, to be replaced with varying shades of blue. He grabbed a lock of his navy-blue hair and stared at it in triupm. "I daresay we're getting better at that, don't you think so, Kit?"

Even though time was stopped, even though technically it should be impossible that Rose had been listening...

The bedroom door opened and Rose stared at me with a watery gaze. I immediately felt even more terrible than I already did, I had been the one to make him cry after all. I sank lower onto the floor but he forced his way onto my lap which forced me, in turn, to sit up to keep him from falling off. He hid his face in my shirt and just stayed there, trembling a little.

I awkwardly rubbed his back, unsure of what to do. But he slowly seemed to calm down, and after a while I realized he had fallen asleep. I glanced over at the other ghosts (er, ghost? They were technically one ghost...) and found that they had grins on their faces.

"Well," Kit said cheerfully. "I think we've done our job. It'll be time for us to go now. Just let Rose sleep off this new information, Danny. He'll be quite alright."

Cobalt chuckled dryly and suddenly the two halves of the same ghost disappeared, with only a single, "Time in," in Cobalt's voice to signify that they had ever been there in the first place.

***line break***

My mother was absolutely delighted when she learned that Rose and I have worked out the fight we'd had. We made no mention that it had been ghosts who helped us, nor that Rose had cussed at me. She could and _would_ wash his mouth out with Ecto-Removal of she knew, and I would not be kissing him after that. He'd most likely be too traumatized for kissing, though.

We shared one quick peck before dinner, after which Rose blushed red with a hint of green and glanced away from me. I point-blank refused to let go of his hand though, thus preventing him form taking off up the stairs in shyness. Dinner that night was something Jazz had made, which meant it wouldn't try to kill us. It was steak for us Fentons and fried fish for Rose (who looked horrified at the fact that my father could eat three steaks in one sitting) along with mashed potatoes, a mix of vegetables, and water that Rose told me not to drink because he'd seen Jazz tamper with it.

Rose picked up his cup and walked past Jazz, "accidentally" falling and spilling the drink on her. It promptly turned into green ectoplasm, and Rose grinned triumphantly.

"Sorry, Jazz," he snorted with suppressed giggles, "if you're going to try to turn our water into ectoplasm then you should really try not to tamper with the water before I've started drinking it. Ghost sense does that."

The things that Rose gets away with increased that day, and I was completely pleased to find that my cup of water had the exact same effect when spilled over Jazz. The things that Rose gets me out of also increased that day.


	11. Chapter 11

Rose was completely and utterly placid the next morning at school. Anyone who asked him why his eye had turned turquoise was met with a surprised expression and a "Are you sure you aren't sick, dear?" from Rose. His tendency to call people "dear" got on my nerves a little bit, but he assured me that I was the only who he had ever called "darling", which made me feel a bit better. Eventually people stopped asking Rose what had happened yesterday, and Rose mused loudly about "being overshadowed by Shadow" at lunch just as a few A-listers were walking past.

"Say, Danny, maybe Shadow overshadowed me to protect his secret," the shadowy-purple-haired boy told me. He had the ghost of a smile on his face and I noticed the tips of two fangs sticking out form beneath his upper lip. Rose's dog form was really taking its toll on Rose's human half...

"I daresay he might have," I answered. "He's always been a bit more relaxed around you, and did you once say that you wouldn't mind being overshadowed by Shadow if he had good reason to do it?"

Rose nodded, looking relieved that I was going along with the story. "Well, yeah. I mean- isn't he the good guy with Phantom? Neither of them have ever done anything that's made me think otherwise. If they have solid reasons to overshadow me, then I'm okay with it as long as they don't make me do something ridiculous."

"Ridiculous as in...?" Kit laughed; Rose shouted and jumped away, the Fenton lipstick in his hand and powered up without a thought. It was almost second-nature to him, the first being to use his ghost powers. Kit cracked up, and Cobalt floated up behind his twin and slowly dragged his ice cold hands across Kit's shoulders. Kit immediately shrieked and darted away.

"We've been playing hide-and-seek-tag all day," Cobalt informed me. "Don't be surprised if we end up in one of your classes. Uh- please don't suck us up into the Fenton thermos. Hey, get back here you cheater!" Cobalt took off after Kit, startling several other students as the two ghosts (I was just going to refer to them as two separate ghosts whenever they were apart) twisted and turned and tried to attack each other.

It was rather funny, and some students wondered if Phantom and Shadow would show. One student pointed out that the two ghosts playing around were the ghost heroes' friends and how unlikely it'd be that the "good ghosts" would come by to attack the other ghosts. There was a bit of disgruntled muttering at that...

At which point Rose checked that no one was looking and phased himself into the ground. He then reappeared as Shadow in front of the two playing ghosts, looking very stern. The two stopped, looking rather guilty (but I could see their 'secret' looks of absolute joy at being caught).

"Alright you two," Rose sighed, laying on his stomach in midair with his head propped up on one hand. "You know Phantom and I own Amity Park by ghost standards, which makes these humans ours. What brings you here?" His face twitched slightly, like he was trying not to smile.

"Scaring people," Kit answered at once, and Cobalt smacked him upside the head. The pink-haired ghost sulked and pouting and went slinking off to sulk in a tree.

"We were not trying to scare people," Cobalt sighed. "We were just having fun, you know, playing hide-and-seek-tag."

Rose narrowed his eyes. "I've no idea which of you to trust, or whether to trust either of you, actually. So... scram."

"What?" Kit called, falling out of the tree he had been so determined to sulk in (and yet had been failing to climb).

"Yeah," Rose nodded, "get out of here. Go on, shoo. Unless you like being stuffed into the Fenton thermos?"

Both ghosts made themselves pretty scarce after that threat. Rose made sure they weren't hiding before shrugging, waving to the students who had gathered, and fading out again. He reappeared as Rose right next to me, where I was shaking with silent laughter.

"That had to be the best thing ever," Tucker gasped from beside me, not bothering to hide his laughter. "Kit's face after being told to scram!"

Today was just getting better and better.

***line break***

Mr. Lancer had the good sense not to question Rose about yesterday, and Rose made no attempt to explain it. Rose turned in the homework silently and took notes like a good little student, at least until the last 20 minutes of class. Then he shot his hand into the air with an air of seriousness around him.

"Yes, Mr. Forrest?" Mr. Lancer asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Rose asked.

"I don't know, can you?" I gaped at Mr. Lancer, unable to believe he'd really done that. But Rose had an even better comeback.

"I don't know, Mr. Lancer," he said with a completely straight face, "can you get a full-time job?"

The entire class cheered for Rose; even Mr. Lancer looked impressed. "I- I don't-" he sputtered.

Rose stood up and went to leave the room. Right before he exited, he turned to a flabbergasted Mr. Lancer and said serenely, "By the way, Mr. Lancer, I believe I can indeed go to the bathroom. I simply thought it much better to ask first."

When Rose came back a few minutes later, he pretended that everything was completely fine and took his seat next to me and Tucker. _Tucker._ Oh man, Tucker was giving Rose ideas to make class interesting. And this was absolutely hilarious.

When the principal walked in, Rose looked at her in horror and fled to the back of the room.

"Mr. Forrest?" Principal Ishiyama inquired.

"You're one of _THEM,_" Rose whispered. Then he began to shriek. "_Impostor!_"

"What?" the principal stuttered.

"You're one of _THEM!_" Rose insisted, pointing his finger at the woman. "Impostor!"

When that entire fiasco had died down (Rose pretended he hadn't done anything, and stubbornly said that he had no idea what either adult was talking about and the entire class backed him up on it), Rose decided to do one last thing.

He broke out sobbing right before Mr. Lancer passed out the homework assignment, startling everyone and making the old overweight teacher grow concerned for his favorite pupil.

"What is it, Mr. Forrest?" he cried out, rushing to Rose's side. Rose looked up with big tears in his eyes, sniffing and choking on his own breath. I suddenly realized what Rose was about to say and forced my smile away.

"Kilo just committed suicide!" he bawled, clutching me and crying into my shirt. I rubbed his back comfortingly and reassured my boyfriend that "Kilo" was happier now. When Mr. Lancer asked who Kilo was, I explained to him in a hurried whisper that Kilo was Rose's depressed and mentally struggling imaginary friend.

"See!" Rose cried out, "This is why he killed himself - no one cares!"

Suddenly, Rose shifted back to his seat and acted like nothing had happened. When Mr. Lancer almost reluctantly asked Rose if Kilo was okay, Rose stared at him blankly and asked, "Who's Kilo?"

It was the best day in my entire life, and what was better was that Mr. Lancer was so concerned for Rose that he didn't pass out the homework. Tucker's PDA was always handy, but when it made class interesting I felt like giving Tucker a high-five.


	12. Chapter 12

Just when things were getting good, a ghost decided to ruin it.

Rose's ghost sense went off at the exact same time as mine, but we had learned to distinguish between sensing each other and sensing other ghosts. This was another ghost. Look though we did, the ghost kept themselves well hidden. When we couldn't find the ghost after an hour or searching, we finally gave up and headed home.

We only got about halfway there. A few nerds behind us, having read the Helen Keller play "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson, were speaking in hurried whispers.

"Man," one of them muttered, "I wish Rose was more like Helen Keller. You know, brave, devious-"

"And more challenged by all the schoolwork we have to do," Dash sneered, coming up behind the nerds. Rose and I had turned invisible and hidden soon after hearing the nerds, and now we were glad we had. "That geek already finished the homework!"

"So you have wished it," Desiree's voice sounded loudly and mischievously, "and so it shall be!"

Beside me, Rose stiffened. His hair blocked me from seeing what had happened, and when I called out to him softly he didn't react. Slowly, one of his hands came up to bat at his hair and the ear facing me. He swatted and pulled at it, as though trying to get something away from it. But there was nothing there. Then he reached up and began to brush at his eye, as though to uncover it...

Desiree had made Rose both blind and deaf. "Just like Helen Keller."

Rose began to panic; I could hear it. His breath came in raspy, rough, shallow pants, and he tried furiously to remove whatever was keeping him in the prison of darkness and silence. Those were Rose's biggest fears, darkness and silence. For both at once to attack him was terrible. He suddenly froze and, after a moment of waiting, thrust his hand out into my stomach. I winced in slight pain as Rose's nails dug into my skin through my shirt, but it seemed to comfort him that I was still here.

He clung to my shirt and pulled himself close, shaking. I tried to calm him down by rubbing his back, but I made no noise knowing that he couldn't hear it. When he lifted his gaze to me, it took all of my self-control to keep myself from forgetting to breathe. Rose's eye had turned a sickly greyish-purple, and he looked absolutely terrified. My boyfriend made a strangled noise, an attempt to talk to me.

I pressed my hand to his face, and he froze again. Without warning, he grabbed my hand in an iron grip and held it to his face, just sniffing it. It must have calmed him some to know that it was actually me here, because he relaxed a little and latched onto my arm. I led him out of the hiding place, knowing that Desiree had gone. I would get her for this. I did not forgive. I did not forget. Not when it came to my boyfriend.

***line break***

**Rose's POV**

I don't know where Danny is anymore. He let go of me to do something, and I tried to stumble after him. But I didn't find him, and now I was panicking more than ever. Without Danny, how was I supposed to get around? Resolve suddenly solidified, I straightened up and stuck my arms out. And then I began to walk.

It was hard, not being able to see or hear. To a dog, that was a death sentence. Seeing as my alternate ghost form was taking its toll on my human half, I considered myself to be at least half-dog. Losing sight and hearing was terrible for humans too, though. Which made me even more uneasy. At least I still had my sense of smell, which I was using to keep myself from straying into the road.

I felt the vibrations from cars in my feet and I halted, confused. I hesitantly started forward again, but someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back in terror. It wasn't Danny; his hand wasn't this small. Someone must have been talking, but I couldn't hear them. The silence was unnerving me. Without any warning to the other person, I jerked my arm up to my face in an attempt to be able to smell whoever had saved me. Their hand, however, was left behind, and I stumbled in my attempt to find it.

Someone else steadied me, an unfamiliar touch to my skin. I made an attempt to speak but I felt my own words catch in my throat and I knew they had come out garbled. A wrist was suddenly pressed into my hand, and I jerked away from it. Blind and deaf, I wondered how Helen Keller had managed to live like this...

The wrist was pushed into my hand again, and this time I latched onto it and pulled it to my face. I sniffed it, discovering a sort of flowery-perfume-like scent. The wrist vanished, and I growled in my silent world because I wanted it back. The scent had meant comfort. My hand was taken, and I tore my hand back and took a step away. I had no idea who these people were; who did they think they were, taking my hand so roughly?

My hand was snatched again, and letters were spelled into it. M-A-R-I-S-S-A. Marissa. Marissa was the flowery girl. Okay. I nodded slowly, and spelled my own name back into the other's hand. R-O-S-E. Rose.

Suddenly another hand took my wrist. I grabbed it and dragged it to my face, sniffing intently. A sort of nature-like scent, dirt and mud and leaves with a hint of something similar to coal. The person who now held my hand spelled their name into it; D-E-C-K-E-R. It took my a moment to figure out what had been spelled, the spelling was so fast. Decker. I hesitated for a moment, then took Decker's hand and wrote into it, B-O-Y-O-R-G-I-R-L-?

B-O-Y was spelled back into my hand, and I nodded approvingly. Decker and Marissa were either good friends like Sam was with us boys, or they were dating. I didn't really care. I spelled my name into Decker's hand, and he moved my hand to his face so that I could feel him nod.

C-A-N-Y-O-U-L-E-A-D-M-E-T-O-F-E-N-T-O-N-W-O-R-K-S-? I spelled out. I needed to get back to FentonWorks, where Danny would hopefully be able to find Desiree and lift this spell.

Decker spelled into my hand O-O-T, which was "Out of Town" in abbreviation. All nerds and geeks knew that, and I quickly made a symbol in Decker's hand. He made it back. Decker and I were fellow geeks. I made the symbol in Marissa's hand as well, and she made it back. We were all geeks. Or they could be making the symbol back to me as a way of reassuring me. Maybe they were just trying to comfort me...

I asked them to lead me to cemetery, where I'd be able to find my way back to FentonWorks myself. They obliged, helping me across the road and making sure I stayed in the middle of the sidewalk. Invalid though I felt, they kept me from tripping and falling or worse, like walking into the road. They left me at the cemetery, a hesitant goodbye; they were pitying me, I could sense their emotions. But I lashed out at them and they left in a hurry, unwilling to face my deaf and blind rage.

I stumbled through the cemetery, using the headstones to find my way through. I sensed a Ghost Portal open up right next to me and I even saw it, which relieved me a little bit. If I could see it, then my abilities to see hidden Ghost Portals was still working alright. I wondered if it'd be a good idea to jump through. Oh well, I decided, I had nothing to lose. If anything, being in my ghost form there would only heighten my senses and make me able to find my way around easier. So I jumped through, not remembering that the portal would close again in a few seconds.

***line break***

**Danny's POV**

I was furious with myself. I had let go of Rose for a moment to pick up our bags, having made a hand signal on his chest to stay there. He either hadn't understood it or he hadn't felt it, because when I turned around he was gone. I searched for him for an hour, and I eventually approached a two kids running from the cemetery. I asked them if a blind and deaf kid by the name of Rose had attempted to communicate to them, and to my surprise the girl said yes.

"He asked us to leave him at the cemetery. So that he could find his way back to F-E-N-T-O-N-W-O-R-K-S. He said he could find his way back from there. Why, are you looking for him?"

"Yes," I gasped. "Thanks!" I dashed off without another word to them, not even bothering to get their names. I got to the cemetery just in time to see Rose climb through... nothing? But my ghost sense went off, so he must have been climbing into a hidden Ghost Portal. I cursed loudly in the ghost language, checking to make sure no one was around before I changed into Phantom and flew off to find Desiree.

***line break***

**Rose's POV**

I landed somewhere not unfamiliar, but certainly a surprise. Skulker's island. I stumbled and hit my head on a rock, effectively knocking myself out for an hour or two. When I opened my eyes again, I pressed in by silence and blindness. So Danny hadn't been able to find Desiree yet... What if I was stuck like this forever? Worse, what if I couldn't find my way off of Skulker's island safely and I ended up dying in the attempt?

**Yeah, things aren't looking too good for Rose and Danny. I got the idea for Rose to become blind and deaf like Helen Keller thanks to "The Miracle Worker" by William Gibson, which I'm currently reading in class. It's an awesome play. By the way yaoiluver4ever, thank you for all your reviews!**


	13. Chapter 13

By the time I had found Desiree, Sam and Tucker were already guilt-tripping her. It was pretty funny to watch, but I appeared right in front of her and she sort of did the ghost equivalent of paling which is becoming slightly invisible. I demanded that she bring me to where Rose was, but Desiree had no idea.

So here we were, an hour later, searching the Ghost Zone for Rose. I'd gotten every ghost on alert, every ghost that would help anyway. Desiree had already agreed to lift the spell on Rose (because she really did feel a little guilty when she learned that the spell had caused Rose and I to become separated; apparently this was some sort of crime in the Ghost Zone, to separate two mates) but she needed him to be present to do that. We had agreed to bring him to a dark, quiet room so that he wouldn't be bombarded with sudden sights and sounds after being blind and deaf for quite a while.

Johnny had insisted on helping, despite the fact that he was now crippled. He wheeled himself off before Kitty could stop him, but she was really more worried for Rose. Johnny had his unlucky Shadow with him, which would protect him if need be.

Even Skulker had agreed to help; he had gone to search his entire island for Rose, which was where most of the ghost portals in the cemetery opened up to. "Most" being a subjective term, the rest of us had gone to search elsewhere just in case. I just hoped we wouldn't be too late.

***line break***

**Rose's POV**

I walked into trees and tripped over rocks and nearly fell down multiple cliffs, but I was determined to get out of the forest before something ate me. I had flipped over to Shadow form just a little bit ago, and something bubbled up in my mind that I hadn't felt for a long time- Shadow himself.

Shadow and I were indeed different entities. While Phantom and Danny might really be just one person, Shadow had become fused to me when I had become half-ghost. He preferred to silently be my subconscious and keep our powers in check, but sometimes during times like this he would surface and take control without me even knowing. Right now, though, he wasn't taking control. He had simply bubbled to the surface of my mind to complain to me.

_Man, this sucks,_ he whined. _Why are humans so jealous? Even that blonde bratty jock hadn't said anything, we wouldn't be in this mess._

_I__ know,_ I answered, _but we've gotta live with it for right now. Hey, do you think if we separate...?_

_Hmm, maybe. It's worth a try anyway. It'll be great, one of us will see and the other will hear._

We attempted splitting, but nothing happened. At all. He was stubbornly stuck to my mind, as though held there by an invisible force. He pouted and complained and whined about it, and eventually he tried to split again. He managed it that time, but it only stuck for a few seconds. And I had remained blind and deaf.

_Did you get any senses back? I didn't._

_Nope. No senses came back._

_Am I allowed to attack the jock when you get your senses back? I swear he won't know it's me._

_No. Because that means you're going to make me do it._

_You're no fun._

I walked into another tree and fell flat on my butt, hissing silently in pain. Shadow dove back into the depths of my mind, which was my first warning that something was nearby. He always fled to my subconscious whenever there was trouble. My second warning was the thump of feet near me; I could feel it. I jumped away, trying to pinpoint where the thump had been; something cold and hard was pushed into my face.

Skulker?

I hissed as loud as I could, though I had no idea of judging how loud I was being, and Shadow helped me spark up a ball of ecto-electricity. He really just guided me in making it, and then his presence in my mind was gone. I often couldn't feel him, but I knew he was there. Sometimes he was a whisper in my head, other times he would be right there at the forefront of my mind, guiding my body in fighting.

Skulker's hand clamped down on my face, and I got a hint of Danny's icy scent before I attempted to to rip off Skulker's metal finger (which I succeeded at doing). He hopped away from me, and I stumbled blindly away. I knew I'd lost him because he would have tried to catch me again if I hadn't. I felt pretty good about myself, though; I had escaped from Skulker while blind and deaf with only minimal assistance from Shadow.

_You know, I resent that._

_Oh hush, you._

***line break***

**Danny's POV**

"You found him, he ripped your finger off, and then he managed to escape you?" I laughed a little. "I'm sorry, but that's really funny. A blind and deaf person who isn't used to being blind and deaf escaped from the 'Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter'."

"Shut up, whelp," Skulker growled at me. "I let him escape. The thing that matters is that the shadow child is on my island. We should go and search for him before he hurts himself. There's no fun in a hunt if the prey can't defend themselves properly."

So we headed over to Skulker's island, only for Skulker to grow alarmed.

"What?" I snapped. "What is it?" Worry was making me even more short-tempered than usual, and I was becoming anxious to have my boyfriend back.

"He is no longer here," the big mechanical robot snapped back. "My sensors can't pick up anything alive on the island except for you; even if the child was in his ghost form he would still be picked up."

My own core stopped and fell into my stomach, filling me with dread. He wasn't here anymore. Or worse, he was... No. I wouldn't let myself think that. It scared me to think that he might be dead, even though he was already half-dead. If he died, I didn't know what I would do.

"So, we do the only logical thing left," I said, keeping my voice from shaking. "We keep looking."

***line break**

**Rose's POV**

It was a while before I found another ghost.

I had stumbled right off of Skulker's island and now I was wandering further and further away, trying to find someone I knew and could trust. Shadow was instructing me quietly about how to walk like this- to always be careful while walking, to keep my arms out in front of me, to never run. I became hyper-aware of my sense of touch; the slightest vibration in the ground alerted me.

I stumbled over a ghost after about three hours of wandering, and I reflexively landed on my wrist and hopped back to my feet facing whomever had tripped me. However, since I couldn't see, I slipped too far off the edge of the little floating rock I was on and fell. Landing on my back, I mewled silently in pain, then furiously in rage. I hated not being able to see or hear.

A hand that smelled of smoke and oil came close to my nose, and I froze. I sniffed harder, and then I confirmed the scent. Snatching the ghost's hand, I pulled myself closer and felt around. I came into contact with rough pants and hard metal; feeling lower on the metal, I found a wheel. I seized the ghost's face in my hand and sniffed it- grease.

My father had come to save me.

Latching on, I settled myself in the wheelchair with Johnny and contentedly allowed him to brush his fingers through my hair. It kept me distracted, and I didn't even notice that we were moving. He had something at his mouth, though; he was talking into it. I pressed my fingers to his mouth, trying to read his mouth movements, but to no avail.

Frustrated, I reached up and took whatever he was talking into, making a garbled sound that was supposed to be "Who are you?" Johnny patiently took it back, rubbing my left shoulder with the other hand. It effectively kept me pinned, causing me to brood silently.

_Well, at least Danny can beat up Desiree for you._

_Yeah, I suppose there's that._

***line break***

**Danny's POV**

Surprisingly, it was Johnny 13 who found Rose.

Somehow, Rose had wandered really far from Skulker's island without running into anyone who would be alerted to his predicament. Or anyone who cared, at that rate. Johnny, however, had been patrolling the area quite a bit away from everyone else. Rose had somehow managed to wander all the way over there, and the crippled ghost had found and secured him.

"Yeah, I've got him right here," Johnny was telling me. "I'll get him to the meeting place in half an hour or so- Rose, stop that-"

Johnny's voice became muffled for a moment, and the ghost explained that Rose was messing around with his mouth. Then there was the sound of someone clumsily taking the communicator, and then there was garbled ghost-speak. "_Yrvlet arctar?_" I recognized Rose's voice, but not the words. He had said "You is how?" and I assumed he meant "Who is this?"

Johnny must have taken the communicator back, because his voice came back through the communicator. "Sorry, Rose took the Fenton Phone... Like I was saying, we'll be there in about half an hour. See you soon." Then the connection fizzled out.

My core resumed beating, and I heaved a sigh of relief. "Skulker," I called through the trees. "Johnny 13's got Rose." I was going to get my boyfriend back, and Rose would get his senses back. Dash's senses, however, would be knocked out of him by a very angry Fenton kid.

***line break***

When Johnny wheeled into the meeting area, I was heavily surprised to find that Rose was pushing him. The halfa was in his ghost form and he had a stubborn look on his face, clinging to Johnny's wheelchair when Kitty tried to pull him away. She stuck his wrist in his face and he sniffed it, letting go.

"Alright Desiree," I sighed, looking at the (heavily guilty-looking) genie ghost. "I wish that Rose had his senses back and that there's no bad side effects to this."

"So you have wished it," she rumbled, "and so it shall be!"

For a moment, Rose was still. His eye flashed bright turquoise and he stared in confusion, first at Desiree and then at Kitty and finally at me, before he fainted.

***line break***

I brought him back to Amity Park on my own. We had been gone a whole two days, which was really scary. Time moved slower in the Ghost Zone than it did in the human world, which was what had caused the big gap. I stumbled through our portal and my parents immediately crushed me in hugs, though I managed to explain to them about Rose and got away up to my room.

Sam and Tucker were waiting there for me, and they were relieved to find that Rose was perfectly fine.

"Yeah, when his senses came back I think it overwhelmed him. He just sort of fainted," I mused.

Tucker nodded. "Dude, how long were you in the ghost zone?"

I thought for a bit, then shrugged. "I don't really know. A few hours at most." I set Rose down on my bed, watching him curl up a little. I sighed in relief. The worst was over.

Or so I thought.


	14. Chapter 14

Rose got to punching Dash before I could the next day, which was both awesome and terrible. It was awesome because Rose gave Dash such a wrath-filled beating that Dash couldn't move for the next few minutes, but it was terrible because it landed both of us in detention (I had insisted that I had goaded Rose into punching Dash) and I had really wanted to hit Dash myself.

There was more good news, though. The school would be having a big talent show, something that Rose was really hyped for. Rose told me he was going to find out if he was allowed to enter the competition as Shadow, even though Shadow was a ghost and didn't go to Casper High. Rose, in Shadow form, had actually been allowed to enter, which was a win in itself. A bunch of rules had been made up on the spot to accommodate the fact that a ghost had entered, such as "No weapons allowed" and "Using ecto-blasts is only permitted when in danger". Silly stuff like that.

Rose had tried to convince me to sign up as Phantom, but I flat-out refused. I didn't feel like showing up to school in Phantom form just to get mobbed. It was nearly the end of the school year anyway; next year Rose and I would be juniors and in a few weeks we would have our two-year-anniversary. Though, new problems were popping up.

Rose's eye began to flash turquoise more often as he got frustrated more often with all the school and Mr. Lancer noticed. He even pulled Rose aside after class one day to talk to Shadow. I had, of course, listened in while invisible.

"Mr. Shadow," Mr. Lancer had said, "please give me warning next time you wish to join a classroom discussion and decide to overshadow one of my students."

"W-What?" Rose stuttered.

"Yes, I saw Rose Forrest's eye flash turquoise, Mr. Shadow. I know the signs of an overshadowing when I see it."

"Er, I-I'll do that, Mr. Lancer."

Rose's eye had flashed turquoise once more in nervousness before he skittered off out of the classroom, and I followed. We would have to be more careful from now on if we wanted to keep our secrets intact.

***line break***

Rose floated near me, bored out of his mind but unwilling to bail out on the talent show. It was the last day of school and we had pretended that Rose had gotten sick. Instead, Shadow had come by to disrupt everyone.

"Mr. Shadow," Lancer finally snapped, "would you please stop disrupting my class?"

"Eh," Rose sighed, shrugging. "I don't have much to do. It's my deathday, you know. The other ghosts can't attack me on my deathday. Laws and such." The class was silent, and Rose seemed to notice that he'd stunned the class. "What? You can't really expect a ghost to remember his birthday from when he was alive, do you? No," he sighed softly, "after you die, you forget a lot about your human life. Your birthday is replaced by your deathday, and I died on the last day of school of my sophomore year."

The day was relatively quiet after that and Mr. Lancer stopped looking frustrated every time Rose make little distractions. Instead, he now seemed to almost pity Rose's ghost form. It was like no one had ever considered that maybe their ghost heroes had been alive at one point.

Paulina tried to ask him how he'd died, but he'd refused to answer and her A-lister friends had made her stop in fear of making Rose angry. Rose seemed pretty relaxed the entire day, even receiving a few presents from other ghosts for his deathday. A deathday really did seem like a birthday for ghosts; then again, I supposed it was. A deathday was celebrated every two years, apparently, instead of annually. Not that Rose seemed to mind it; instead, he seemed to relax more.

Skulker had given Rose a bit of technology to mess around with, which Rose delighted in electrocuting to see the pretty little red-and-blue sparks that it made. Ember had given Rose a new headset (and Rose had, in return, forced a hug upon the pop singer ghost). Kitty had dropped by with two presents, one from her and one from Johnny. Kitty's present was a make-up set that always had whatever makeup you wanted in it; Rose adored it to no end and a few girls had even managed to convince Rose to let them give him a make-over. Johnny's present was a communicator, something that let Rose always contact Johnny whenever he wanted. And Rose probably loved that more than anything.

Though, the longer Rose stayed in his ghost form, the more often he slipped into the ghost language. He didn't really seem to realize it when he slid into it until someone pointed it out, though he did slide back into English on his own after a bit. After it was brought to his attention that he was slipping into ghost, he made a better effort to speak English and stopped speaking in a language that no one in the school except for me could understand.

***line break***

Rose did such a good job at the talent show that I didn't know what to think. He got Ember and Kitty to join him in singing, and they did so well that it would be a wonder if they _didn't_ win.

"Oh whoa ho, oh whoa," the three sang together. "You didn't know that you fell~... oh whoa ho, oh whoa..."

"Now that you're under our spell," Ember chuckled.

"Blindsided by the beat," Rose sang, "clapping your hand, stomping your feet...~ You didn't know that you fell...~"

"Oh whoa ho, whoa..~" Kitty and Ember sang together.

Their song got the entire school into a sort of trace, though I noticed that Rose wasn't letting Ember or Kitty do anything destructive.

"Listen to the sound of my voice~," Rose purred into his microphone, the two girls still humming in the background. "Soon you'll find you don't have a _choice~..._"

***line break***

Rose mysteriously vanished right before the prizes were given out, forcing the second-place winner to receive first-place. It was a humble thing to do, even though I was pretty sure it was just because the trophy couldn't be seen in the Fenton household or else people would get suspicious. After the talent show, Rose shifted into his dog form and decided to give Jazz and I a surprise ride home, picking us up by the backs of our shirts and happily running off to FentonWorks with us dangling from his mouth.

He dropped us off safely at the door and then vanished, probably back to my room where he was supposed to be in human form. Sure enough, when I went to my room he tackled me in his human form. Everything was okay, and hopefully the summer wouldn't completely suck. Then again, getting breaks didn't happen very often. Only on deathdays, apparently.


	15. Chapter 15

The summer passed with a lot of ghost fighting.

We were kept busy quite a lot with hurrying around to stave off ghost attacks or to do whatever we could to help out around town. About halfway through the summer, Rose saved fifteen people in a burning building and escaped with severe burns around his hands and back from trying to keep burning doorways from collapsing while I kept the two ghosts who had started the fire away from the building. I didn't know who they were, but they were being pretty destructive.

When Rose came out of the building with the last person who'd been left inside, a little girl clutching her smoke-stained teddy bear and Rose's burnt grey camouflage shirt, Rose managed to set her down before he landed on his feet, wobbled, and collapsed. With the two ghosts caught, I hurriedly landed next to Rose and glanced up at the panicking medics after confirming for myself that he was indeed still breathing.

"Call Maddie Fenton," I told them. "She knows more about ghost physiology than anyone else."

Within only half an hour, my mother was at the scene trying to keep from revealing that she knew us "ghosts" more than everyone thought she did. She patched up Rose carefully, rubbing some kind of burn ointment into the wounds that made Rose moan and flinch in pain. At one point, I had to force my hand over Rose's mouth to keep him from biting.

"He'll probably be okay," Mom concluded to the doctors. "The burns should heal pretty soon and I don't think he'll suffer any long-lasting damage from breathing in smoke."

I heaved a sigh of relief and scooped my unconscious boyfriend up bridal style, doing my best not to agitate the bandages my mother had put over the burns so as not to hurt Rose more than he was already hurting. He shifted in my arms a little but otherwise didn't respond. Receiving a curt nod from my mother (who really did look a little worried), I flew Rose back home. He wouldn't be ghost fighting for a few weeks.

***line break***

Keeping Rose from fighting was harder than I'd initially thought. He healed faster than my mother thought he did (perhaps she had put too much thought into the limitations of healing from his human half?), and it quickly became obviously that a bored Rose wasn't to be taken lightly. In only the first week he nearly knocked Jazz out by throwing the TV remote at her.

He refused to eat in bed, forcing himself down the stairs to try to get to dining room every single time. And every single time he ended up falling down the stairs. The first time he fell down the stairs, he'd been forcing back cries of pain from landing on his back and hands. By the fifteenth time he'd done it, he only needed a few moments to shake off the ache and join us at the table. I took to just carrying him down the stairs whenever dinner came around, even if he did complain about it.

This was one of those complaining times. He didn't want to be carried downstairs; he kept whining that he could walk by himself and would rather walk. I only tightened my grip on him so that he couldn't escape and plopped him down at the table. He crossed his arms, easily hiding his hands from me, and pouted. Oh dear god, that pout had to be the most adorable thing in existence.

Rose ate dinner rather grumpily, escaping from the table before I could insist on carrying him back upstairs. Instead of going upstairs, he instead scampered outside. Though no one could really blame him for wanting to get outside while the weather was still warm (he still intensely loathed winter), he couldn't exactly be trusted not to hurt himself more. So Jazz took her plate outside so that she could watch him while eating, and I could hear Rose complaining that he didn't need to be babysat.

***line break***

**Rose's POV**

"I don't need a babysitter, Jazz," I complained, flopping onto my stomach since my back was still tender.

"Maybe not," she hummed, "but you do need to be watched. Last time we left you alone outside you tried to climb a tree and ended up getting a bunch of splinters in your hands. And then you fell from about 20 feet up and landed on your back."

I pouted at her, but she wasn't as easily swayed by it as everyone else in the family was. When she showed no signs of caving, I groaned loudly and shifted into a sitting position. "If you aren't going to leave me alone," I grumbled, "at least force Danny out here so that I can spatter him in mud. Unless you'd rather play in the mud with me?"

"No thanks," she snorted, finishing up her dinner and calling for Danny.

***line break***

**Danny's POV**

When I heard Jazz calling for me, I knew that Rose was willing to wage war. If it was war he wanted, it was war he could get. I changed into my swim trunks and threw a pair at Rose from the window, who obligingly turned invisible to change. He started up the hose while I scrambled to get downstairs before Rose got impatient and threw mud at Jazz. The last time he did that, Jazz was mad at us for a week.

The moment I got outside, Rose got me in the chest with mud. Laughing, I scooped some up myself and flung it at Rose, catching his perpetually messy hair with the brown gook. Jazz went inside to shield herself from the fight while us boys tried to hit each other.

***line break***

Rose was humming as he blow-dried his hair, twitching ever so slightly. I'd learned what that meant; a thunderstorm was on its way and Rose would probably exhaust himself to the point of physical breakdown and he'd only feel it once the storm was over. Keeping him still would be a death wish. It was the day before school, and Rose had finally fully healed. The burns had disappeared and Rose could hold a pencil without flinching.

As he shook out his wet hair to help it dry, I found myself staring at him. I hadn't done that for a while, and I blushed when I realized I was doing it. Rose hadn't seemed to notice, though; his blind side was to me, after all. I sneaked up behind him and grabbed his shoulder, startling him into dropping the hair dryer.

"Danny!" he scolded in a voice that was a few octaves higher than normal, "don't do that!"

I didn't answer him, only laughed and wrapped my arms around him possessively. My boyfriend had certainly noticed how possessive I'd gotten after his deathday; the attention he'd gotten from the other ghosts had gotten on my nerves. Rose was mine and only mine. And Rose accepted my possessiveness; he never said anything about it. He never said anything about my clingy-ness, nothing about how easily jealous I got, absolutely nothing.

I could tell he enjoyed it, though.


	16. Chapter 16

Very first day of being a sophomore and Rose already got on Mr. Lancer's nerves. The thunderstorm was at its peak by the time we got to Mr. Lancer's English class, undeterred by anything. Rose was twitchy and couldn't pay attention at all, spacing out multiple times throughout the day. Luckily, the storm changed course before it got right over Amity Park, saving us all from an energetic Rose.

Rose was pretty much asleep by the time school let out, his small shocks not even electrifying the air. He insisted on walking by himself, shoving my arm away every time I tried to get him to lean on me, even just a little bit. He even tried to bite me, at which point I stopped trying to make him lean on me. Instead, I forced him to lean on me by tugging his shoulder into my side. The shorter boy squirmed a little but eventually gave up as his own exhaustion took over.

"See what happens when you listen to me?" I smirked. "You get to relax a little. Is that so bad?"

"Yes," he muttered darkly. He shot me a halfhearted glare, his eye flashing turquoise for just a moment. He seemed to grow a bit thoughtful. "Shadow says he disapproves of your behavior in forcing me to rely on you."

"Oh, does he?" I chuckled.

"Yes, he does," Rose said matter-of-factly. "I never did tell you that he and I are separate entities, did I?" He tipped his head to one side, ignoring my shock. "No, I didn't. Well, when I became a half-ghost, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He ended up fused to me, but he says he doesn't mind. He was about to disappear when we fused, and he says he likes to be my subconscious."

"Really?" I muttered. "I've never really thought about you and your ghost form as different people." It made me wonder. Were Phantom and I separate entities? Did he just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

As though reading my mind, Rose mumbled, "Are you wondering if you and Phantom are separate entities? Because I can tell you right now that you aren't. Phantom and you are the same person."

"How can you tell?"

"Well, for starters, your eyes only flash green when you're experiencing a strong negative emotion." Rose's voice became a bit different, almost too subtle to notice. Shadow? "My eye flashes turquoise whenever Shadow feels like knowing what's going on for himself. Besides, I'd be able to see it just like I can see hidden Ghost Portals. Phantom would show up as a very slight apparition over your form; he doesn't, which makes you one-hundred-percent you."

Rose gave me a small smile, his eye becoming a darker purple. I realized his eye had been turquoise while he'd been talking. "Sorry. Shadow's a bit confusing. I think he and Jazz would get along well."

"Probably," I laughed, rubbing Rose's shoulder. "Does Shadow do that a lot?"

"No," my boyfriend said, shaking his head. "Like I said, Shadow prefers staying in my subconscious. He says it's quieter there; apparently, I think loudly. He only takes over when I'm too distracted to keep fighting or when my existence is about to be obliterated. He likes existing."

Somehow, I found that last comment funny.

***line break***

Rose was arguing with himself. Silently.

I could tell because he kept getting a sort of miffed look on his face, or he would move his lips with no sound. Rose seemed to win the argument, because in the middle of his silent arguing he suddenly smirked triumphantly. His eye remained purple for it, so I assumed it was him and not Shadow. It bothered me only the slightest bit that Shadow and Rose were two different beings.

"Rose, would you explain to me why Shadow was able to fuse to you again?" I asked, staring at the ceiling of my room.

He sighed and began. "I half-died, Danny, just like you did. But the part of me that died was obliterated immediately after it left my body. That left room available for Shadow, who fused to me because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Rose suddenly paused, thinking. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter. "Shadow says that he's pretty much me now. He didn't have a form, a personality, nothing. He didn't even have a name before he fused to me. I gave him that, and because of that he's me and yet not me at the same time.

"While it's true that he's not the half of me that died, it's also true that he wouldn't exist if he hadn't fused to me. He considers himself part of my mind, and even if he could he wouldn't split himself apart from me. He likes sharing my body, says it makes him feel like he has a purpose. I don't think he'd be able to split apart from me anyway, though."

"Why is that?" I asked softly, already knowing the answer.

"It would split our personalities. While he didn't have one until he fused to me, our personality traits are split. If we were to split, well... it wouldn't be pretty. Our traits don't split well." Rose glanced at me. "If we were to split, our personalities would become completely different. I would be a shy, clumsy, depressed mess of a person. Shadow would be a violent, insatiable, uncontrollable monster of a ghost. Together, we're... well, me. A shy, patient, slightly dangerous ghost fighter."

I smiled at him, which he shyly returned. I finally had an answer I didn't want more out of from him, and it made me happy. "Slightly dangerous? Please, you nearly annihilated Dash the first time he got on your nerves enough to push you past your breaking point."

"I'm surprised you have the word 'annihilated' in your vocabulary and can use it correctly in a sentence," he snickered, causing me to fling a weak-powered ectoblast towards him. He yelped and deflected it out the open window. "Hey! Don't make me get Shadow out here! He can beat you in a fight any day!"

I snorted and laughed, "Only because he's too fast to hit."

***line break***

Jazz was completely and utterly delighted to find out that Rose and Shadow were not one person. She was currently interrogating both of them at the same time, the Fenton Ghost Catcher coming in handy. It was strange to see Rose acting so differently and it was even more surprising to see the black-haired ghost sitting next to tiny Rose, glaring at Jazz.

"You've had your questions answered," he growled dangerously. "Give me the stupid device so that I can merge back with Rose. I hate this."

"Why?" she asked eagerly. "Why do you hate it?"

Shadow rolled his eye, baring sharp fangs in her face in a snarl of rage. She leaned back a little, looking a little scared but mostly impressed with his ferocity. "I was never meant to be apart from him for very long. He'll start doing stupid things if I'm not there to act as his conscience- Damnit, Rose, windows are not for climbing out of!"

He shot over to Jazz's window and pulled Rose back inside, holding the struggling purple-haired boy in one arm as he closed the window. "See what I mean? Stupid things."

"I _wanted_ to see the stars better," Rose mumbled.

Shadow rolled his eye again and shook Rose a little, eliciting a squeak from the poor boy. "Hello, Rose, you can't fly without me. Don't climb out of windows, you'll fall and get hurt. It's dangerous."

Rose shifted away from the ghost, sulking in the corner. "I think you're more dangerous," my boyfriend muttered under his breath.

Satisfied with the answers she got, Jazz finally let the two merge back together. Rose shuddered and held his midsection when he stepped out of the Ghost Catcher's range. "Man," he whispered, "Shadow is _seething._" Rose shot a terrified look at Jazz. "Jazz, I think you learned more about me than I even know."

Jazz only smirked proudly.


	17. Chapter 17

It was only a few days later when I found out that Rose was colorblind. He'd never attempted to bring it up and I'd never thought to ask him about it. Jazz was asking Rose if he thought two colors would go well in an outfit, and he eventually sighed and given her an answer.

"Jazz," he began, "I'm colorblind. Completely and utterly colorblind. No color at all. I have no idea what two colors you're comparing, because to me they're just blobs of light grey and dark grey and I'm telling you, grey goes pretty well with grey."

She stopped asking and just stared at him. After a moment, he shrugged and began to walk away. "Now, you said red and gold, right? Seeing as both are considering 'warm' colors, I'd say they go pretty damn well together."

My father was working on a new invention in the lab, one that would reduce a ghost's physical and mental age and thus reduce their threat level. He was trying to calibrate it to ignore anything that had a pulse so that it wouldn't affect Rose or I if we accidentally got hit with it. It had multiple settings for time; there was a 10-second setting so that he could test it on Rose or I without any long-lasting effects. So far, it didn't ignore us.

He had originally created it so that he could catch "that pesky Danny Phantom punk" easier, but he was rebuilding it to make it easier for us to fight off ghosts. It made me feel a little better to know that my parents wanted to help me fight ghosts.

Last night had been a sleepless night for both Rose and I, so it didn't surprise me that Rose was sipping black coffee at the table when I got to the kitchen that morning.

"Still tired?" I sleepily asked, though it was a bit more of a statement than a question.

"What do you think?" Rose grumbled. Yep, he definitely wasn't awake yet. I decided to make him something to eat, but he soon noticed what I was doing and told me not to bother. "Not hungry. More tired than anything else."

I stopped, giving him a worried look. "Are you sure you don't want even something small to eat? It might wake you up a little bit..."

"I said I'm not hungry." Rose slumped down in his seat more, pushing his coffee away to rest his forehead on his forearm. I gently slid a thermometer into his mouth, propping his head up by holding his chin. Sure enough, his temperature had spiked to 78.6 F, a fever.

"You're sick. You're going back to bed."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. Even if I have to carry you there."

Rose clung to the table, unwilling to move. So I did what any other normal concerned boyfriend would do; I went and told my mom. Mom went right up to Rose, grabbed his hand, and practically dragged him back upstairs to bed. I could hear him complaining from the front door. Rose was strange; he hated missing school. Maybe it was being away from me, or maybe it was just the fact that there was nothing to do. I wasn't sure and to be honest, whatever made Rose get better made me happy.

***line break***

The house was absolutely _coated_ an aura of anger and grumpiness the moment I set foot in the house. I winced, knowing it was probably because of Rose, and made my way upstairs to give Rose his homework. To my surprise, entering my room was like getting far away from the house; there was absolutely nothing of the air of fury that permeated the other rooms of the house.

"Danny?" came Rose's groggy voice. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," I answered, sitting down next to him. He was curled up into a tiny ball with the comforter over his body, heater next to him on full blast, and he was _still_ shivering. "Feeling any better?"

"No," he moaned. "I'm freezing, my head is all stuffy, I'm so tired I haven't been able to keep my eye open for longer than ten seconds all day, and the TV only makes my headache worse."

"Sorry," I said sympathetically. "Maybe we should do your homework later, then." Propping him up against my side so as to reassure him that I wasn't leaving the room anytime soon (because he got very clingy when he was sick), I began to do my work. Sometimes, he would grab my pencil and angrily scratch out whatever I'd just written, rewriting it correctly in slow, sloppy penmanship. It almost physically hurt to see him so sick.

After getting only halfway through my homework, I sighed and put it away in favor of rubbing warmth back into Rose's arms. He shivered and huddled close, making me realize just how cold he must be if clinging to me made him warmer. I checked his temperature again and found that his fever had sparked to 81.4 F.

"Just how bad is your fever going to get before it gets better?" I asked him, knowing he had to answer.

He chuckled dryly and humorously, breaking into a coughing fit in the middle of it. "My temperature has spiked to 130 on occasion. Promise me that you'll bring me to Frostbite if my temperature exceeds 110."

"I promise." Even though Rose might have been joking, I most certainly wasn't.

***line break***

My sick boyfriend's temperature quickly spiked past 110 F during the night, resulting in a 119.6 F that morning when he tried to insist that he was better and could go to school. My mother immediately knew that he wasn't the moment she entered the kitchen (probably thanks to her mother instinct) and, since I told her about the promise I'd made to Rose to take him to Frostbite if his temperature got too high, she called the school to let them know I'd be going in late and then sent me off in the Specter Speeder with Rose to the Far Frozen.

Rose complained the entire way there, but I'd expected that. He acted similarly to a fussy child when he was sick. I only hoped that Frostbite would be able to help him; after all, he didn't have an ice core like I did. However, I kept a positive attitude.

Because if Frostbite couldn't help Rose, no one could help Rose.


	18. Chapter 18

I flew the Specter Speeder straight to the village, though I normally would have stopped and waited for a patrol. Rose had asked me to take him to Frostbite if his temperature got too high; I was doing just that. His temperature had risen yet again, 125.4 F now. He had ceased to speak, instead laying on his side in the back of the speeder, panting feverishly and unable to move. The Far Frozen yetis seemed to realize how dire the situation was when I landed in the village, for Polaris (the village's best sword-fighter) had run to get Frostbite the moment I landed.

The leader yeti was pushing his way through the crowd by the time I managed to stumble out into the snow with Rose clutched hazardously to my chest. I transformed into my ghost ego in front of the ghosts, knowing that they knew I was a halfa and thus wouldn't be surprised. Frostbite took one look at Rose's still, hardly-breathing form and instantaneously looked concerned. The big furry ghost didn't even bother to ask me if I would like to be carried, similar to the first tie we had met; he simply snagged me by the back of my HAZMAT suit, lifted me up, and set off for the medical ward.

One thing was for certain. If Frostbite was worried, I obviously wasn't worrying enough.

***line break***

Even though Frostbite repeatedly bade me not to worry, I couldn't help but worry. Rose looked so much tinier in the yeti-sized hospital bed. His eye had gone from purple to turquoise in a short amount of time, and a band had to be forced around his wrist to stop him from transforming into his ghost dog form directly from human form. As it was, he was in ghost form and every few seconds he sparked horribly.

He had tried speaking to me only once. When he found that his words only came out in garbled Ghost, he had stopped trying and fallen unconscious. Currently, the Far Frozen medics had absolutely no idea how to help Rose. A fever of that ferocity, something that just keep increasing and increasing and increasing... they'd never seen anything like it. Even Kit stopped by, and I hoped he could shed light on what was happening.

"Well, one thing is for certain." His voice was calm, if a little shaky. Cobalt. "You did the right thing in bringing him here. And that band should keep him from taxing himself to the point of full death."

"But do you know what this is?" I pressed, hoping for an answer. He had to know, didn't he? The lilac-haired boy gave me the saddest of looks.

"By all accounts, even Kit doesn't." My core dropped. "However, this should be curable. After all, how do you combat the heat in the summer?" He gave me the weakest, the smallest of smiles; he gave me a smile that looked like he wanted to break down and cry. And in one instant, he was gone.

But he had given me hope. I relayed what Cobalt had told me to the medics, who immediately set to work implementing the time ghost's apprentice's advice. I used my own ice powers to help; I slid a thin, flexible, unbreakable ice over Rose's blanket and my sick boyfriend looked a little better. He latched onto the cold blanket, pulled it over his face with so much difficulty I ended up helping him, and then ceased to move again. But it was something; he wasn't gone yet.

Not yet. And hopefully not until he had lived his life.

***line break***

Rose's fever didn't break, not even after two days. I had gone back home only to tell my mother that I would be gone until Rose was better. We kept in touch using the Fenton Phones. Not even the best medic, a Far Frozen by the name of Snow, knew what was going on. One the third day of staying at the Far Frozen medical ward, something strange happened.

Rose reverted to his human form and Shadow was flung outside of Rose's body with such force that he hit the wall on the far side of the cavern. The ghost, panicked, regained his senses and threw himself at Rose.

"No, dammit, Rose!" he shouted. He groaned in defeat and sank into the chair beside me, his face pressed into the icy blanket. Shadow looked at me with his one eye and regarded me coolly; then he touched Rose's forehead and flinched, pulling it back as though he'd been shocked. He looked at me again, standing. He seemed to consider something.

"Are you gonna talk to me or just sit there and look at me weirdly?" I deadpanned. Shadow chuckled, a rough sound that made me flinch. It was like iron grating against iron, or nails against a chalkboard; the sound was terrible.

"Well then, I guess that settles it." He grabbed one of my hands in a vice-like grip. I was pretty sure if he held on any tighter he'd shatter my hand bones. "You're coming with me."

"W-With you? Where?" I stuttered. Shadow paused and looked at me, as though I was joking. When he saw I wasn't, he broke in manic laughter.

"Where else? Into Rose's mind, of course!" He wrote up a note for the Far Frozen medics, instructing them not to do anything to Rose's body lest they throw Danny and him out before the healing could begin. "That's where this sickness started, and that's where we've got to tackle it."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" I demanded.

"Well, I tried three times. The first time was when he first got sick; he was especially stubborn then, I didn't want to irritate the virus. The second time was when I spoke in garbled Ghost, before Rose pushed me back. It's hard to reason with a sick child. The third time was now, and I was successful." He finished the note and placed it on Rose's chest. "Third time's the charm. Well, are you ready to go?"

"W-What!" I yelped. "No!"

"Well, too bad," he said cheerfully. "Rose's mind is only going to let me if you come along, and if I can't get in then I can't save Rose before he withers into nothing. So, get to it!"

And with that happy note lingering in my own mind, Shadow tugged me forward so suddenly I stumbled- into absolute nothingness.

***line break***

I remembered this place. This was where Rose and I used to live before I moved to Amity Park...

Shadow stood beside me, still clutching my hand. He showed no signs of letting go, and frankly I didn't want him to. His clutch gave me a sort of sense of reality; this was actually happening.

"It all starts here," he muttered to me. "Right after you moved away, this happened. We can't progress forward until you see this. The virus is hidden beneath a lot of Rose's painful memories. Things he wouldn't want you to know, because for you to know would be for you to feel his pain." The ghost gave me a sad, apologetic look. "Unfortunately, unless we get through these, Rose can't get better. I've already seen these; I've been thorugh his memory too many times to count on one hand- not that I'm good at math."

He fell silent as the scene began; he led me into Rose's house, simply walking through the walls with no trouble. My breath stopped as I watched the scene unfold, the scene that Rose had never told me about in detail. The scene where he had gotten his ghost powers.

_No no no no no no no no!_ Rose's thoughts crashed into my mind and it startled me how young his voice sounded; I had expected it to sound like his voice did now.

Rose's mother, drunk and covered in alcohol, stumbled towards him with Plasmius not far behind. She was a rather pretty lady, with long, straight silver hair and violet eyes. Rose cowered before her, whimpering apologies. But she didn't care; she held the child down and let Plasmius draw close, his hand glowing with pink ecto-energy...

It was the worst moment I've ever experienced.


	19. Chapter 19

The memories I witnessed were enough to make even my father cry. I had felt Rose's pain when Shadow's formless consciousness was burned into Rose's body; I had felt Rose's fear when he had drifted into the Ghost Zone with no way out; I had felt Rose's suffering when Vlad tried to teach him to control his powers; the memory I didn't want to face was next.

"This is the last memory," Shadow promised me in his gravelly, iron-on-iron-like voice. "I promise. And then we'll be able to get rid of this virus and Rose will be okay."

I nodded tersely, unwilling to speak. This memory, this memory would forever burn my mind. Even if I forgot the others, this one would stick. It would stick because this memory would show me how Rose had felt when he had saved me, when he had melted into ectoplasmic goo. Would I feel his pain as he drained his entire body of energy? Or would I feel his resolve to save me?

Unlike the other memories in which Shadow had been right beside me the entire time, now I felt his presence suddenly shoot away from me. He was gone.

A wave of peaceful abandon washed through me, though it was not my own. I glanced up at the memory. Rose was smiling down at me, shivering and staring at him in horror. He couldn't see either form of me, I knew that. The drain of energy had robbed Rose of his sight. And yet I felt that he was staring directly at me, the invader in his memories. When he melted, I felt something that I had never felt in any of his memories before: bliss.

He had been happy to melt, knowing that he had saved me.

Somehow, that memory was easier to live with that I thought it would be.

***line break***

I suddenly emerged into the Far Frozen medical ward. I stared in confusion at Rose's untouched blanket before reality kicked in. Shadow had sent me out of Rose's mind. I cursed softly and settled back down into my chair to wait.

I didn't remember falling asleep, but I did remember waking up to a soft sigh that sounded like Rose and a small weight against my own body. Soft hair tickled my chin and I opened my eyes, staring down at the tiny little body that had decided to tuck itself against me. Tiny little Rose, no longer burning with fever but instead cool to the touch like he ought to have been.

"Rose?" I said aloud, smiling and wincing at the same time as Rose stirred.

"Hm?" he said groggily, his purple eye unfocused. He was in human form, in this place?

"Rose, you'll-" He held a finger up to my mouth to silence me.

"I won't freeze. We're not in the Far Frozen anymore." 

For the first time, I noticed that the walls were covered in NASA posters... we were lying in bed... We were home? My sleepy boyfriend smiled sweetly and settled back down into slumber, not noticing (or perhaps pretending he hadn't) that I continued to stare at him long after he fell back asleep. Who had gotten us home? Surely not my mother. I had had the Specter Speeder, after all. Rose, then? But he would have been too weak from sickness...

Shadow? Maybe. It was a strange possibility. One that I didn't quite want to think about. What mattered was that Rose was safe for now, and I'd thank Shadow next time I got him alone. The slight change in voice should be enough to tell me who was in control. But then, didn't Rose say that Shadow didn't often emerge, and when he did it was for only split-second periods?

I'd thank him when I could. For now, I was content to watch Rose sleep, focusing on the steady, if a little slow, core-beat he possessed. I was content to watch him breathe, and it was worth it to make sure that he was there and alive.

**Sorry for short chapter, my birthday is on Friday and I'm busy getting ready to feed first-graders sugary cupcakes because I decided to take the class where I got to go hang out with little kids for an entire period instead of choosing Art or Music or whatever. I like the first-graders better than my own classmates. :/**


	20. Chapter 20

A month later, it was Halloween.

Rose had seemed genuinely confused when I had told him about it. Shocked, I tried to explain to him the concept of trick-or-treating. The ghost-raised halfa didn't seem to understand it. Maybe I was using words that didn't make sense to him. While he was smarter than I was (and his grades showed it), explaining something trivial to him (such as trick-or-treating and Halloween) seemed to go straight over his head.

A little kid ended up explaining it better to him than I had hoped to do. We'd finished fighting Skulker, and Rose had been beckoned down by a little kid dressed up at a zombie.

"Mr. Shadow, are you gonna go trick-or-treating with Phantom?"

"There's that word again!" Rose gave the child a once-over with his eye. "Trick-or-treating... and why are you wearing a silly outfit?"

"It's Halloween!" the kid exclaimed, seeming just as shocked as I had been that Rose didn't know what Halloween was. "It's when everyone dresses up as something and they go around and the grown-ups give out candy!"

Rose seemed rather startled. "The human adults give you candy? For free?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. "And you carve out pumpkins and put them in front of your house!"

Realization dawned on Rose. "Oh!" he said cheerfully. "You mean All Hallow's Eve!" He had an innocent smile on his face. "Why didn't you just say so? Humans carve out pumpkins to keep the Fright Knight away too, then?"

"Who's the Fright Knight? Is he a monster?" 

"No," Rose shook his head. "The Fright Knight is a ghost who used to terrorize the Ghost Zone. There's only one way to defeat him, and that's to stick his sword in a pumpkin to seal away his powers. You keep pumpkins in front of your house so that if he ever gets free, he'll stay away form your house because he's afraid of getting sealed up again."

The kid only stared at Rose. "You really need to try trick-or-treating. And us humans call it Halloween, not All Hallow's Eve."

I floated down to shake Rose's shoulder. "He's right," I said lightly. "Halloween is the same as All Hallow's Eve, but human children dress up and go around knocking on houses' doors. If an adult answers, they say 'Trick or treat!' and then the adult gives them free candy. Then they say thank-you and go on to the next house."

Rose frowned. "Why didn't you say so earlier when you were trying to explain it to me? It certainly doesn't sound like the rocket science you were trying to explain to me earlier!"

***line break***

Rose and I did end up trick-or-treating. I only went to keep Rose out of trouble, but Rose went because he was really excited to find out what "all this human stuff" was about. Since Rose had been raised by Johnny and Kitty for a good portion of his life, he had been separated from human culture too long to pick up more of the human holidays. He only picked up the holidays that ghosts celebrated, which included a few that I'd never even heard of. When Rose had been in Vlad's care, Vlad had evidently found it unimportant to teach Rose about the human holidays. Or perhaps he had tried and simply failed.

Rose didn't bother dressing up, instead just staying in his ghost form. He didn't seem to be having any problem holding it for long periods of time, unlike me, as long as he didn't completely deplete his energy or get too hurt. Rose did, in his excitement to learn about a new human holiday that he'd never heard of, end up switching directly from human form to ghost dog form. Or at least he tried. When ended up happening was his normal ghost form and his dog form merging together.

The problem was easily remedied by going into ghost dog form and then switching out, something that Rose did immediately so as not to scare anyone. Or permanently mutate himself. He had no idea if that would happen or not, and he was not taking chances.

Tucker and Sam were going with Rose as well, Tucker for the free candy and Sam to help me keep an eye on Rose for when I needed to fight a ghost or when Rose decided to wander off after I got distracted keeping an eye out for trouble. Sam even went as far as to get a child leash for Rose, attaching a harness to him and clipping the leash on. Rose didn't really like it, but my mother and father had made it phase-proof. There was no getting out of it.

Or so we thought.

Within the few few minutes, Rose broke the fabric and scampered ahead to keep "candy-getting", as he called it. He very quickly and very easily disappeared from our sight; I found him at the next block happily trick-or-treating with a few younger kids, probably 7th-graders. They didn't seem to realize his identity, instead believing, perhaps, that he had a very convincing costume on. At least, until one of them startled him into becoming invisible.

***line break***

Rose came home way after curfew, which had been set at 9 that particular night. Rose instead wandered home around 10:30, giggling like mad with candy smeared on his face. I watched my mom and Rose interact from the top of the stairs, where I stood invisible.

"I'll take that as a sign that you had fun?" Mom chuckled as she caught sight of Rose's face.

"Yes!" he chirped. "Humans have a very intricate candy-giving system set up! This holiday is awesome!"

"Glad you had fun," she said, wiping Rose's face as he tried to escape from her. "But you came home nearly an hour and a half after curfew."

"Sorry. I ended up fighting a bunch of ecto-pusses and then I went trick-or-treating more and by the time I realized what time it was it was already 10:25."

"You flew home in five minutes? Where were you, the Nasty Burger?"

"No, I was at Specter Road, about a ten-minute drive from here."

"You flew home in five." Mom sounded impressed as she finally released Rose's face. "How fast were you going?"

"Not nearly as fast as I could go. I was only going 75 miles per hour." Rose shrugged, as though this wasn't very fast. TO us half-ghosts, it really wasn't. Rose could go to nearly 200 mph.

My mother, however, choked on her own breath at those words. "_Only_ going 75 mph? Rose, that's-"

"Not as fast as he could go," I said from the foot of the stairs now. I let myself fade into view, prompting Rose to squeak and tackle me happily. "He can get to nearly 200 mph without breaking a sweat, Mom."

My mom pouted. "I'm going to have to get you both phones with speedometers, just so that you guys can tell how fast you're going. But I do get you two phones, you better tell me how fast you guys end up going! Research is time, and time is money!"

**Yup, Rose had no idea what Halloween was until he was almost 17. He also has no idea how to work a car, not that he really needs to know considering he can just fly everywhere. Thought you guys might like this chapter, showing off Rose as an excited little kid is actually really really fun.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Sorry for the wait! I needed to get my muse back, that was all. Birthday and stuff drained it from me. I own nothing but the plot and Ros ein this story!**

Rose kept his promise to my mother; whenever he hit a new record speed, he informed her about it. Even though she didn't actually end up getting us regular phones, she did make us promise to always have a Fenton Phone on us. Rose used it often because he kept getting faster and faster, even in human form. His current record was 315 mph, and he seemed unable to get past that.

His athleticism was almost on par with Dash's, even though mine surpassed Dash's. I suspected Rose didn't really put in the effort in that class, nor did he feel the need to. After all, why should he when all he had to do was find a ghost to fight to get his exercise in? After school we ended up getting a (not so pleasant) surprise. We had just finished taking down Skulker yet again, congratulating each other on the victory, when we heard an all-too-familiar voice behind us.

"Aww, _Shadow_ dear, there you are!" Rose's mother, Vanessa, cooed. Rose turned so fast that he stumbled, shaking like a leaf. His one eye was wide and terrified. "I've been looking for you, mister," she tutted, walking closer to Rose. I landed in front of my boyfriend with a glare at the silver-haired woman, knowing what I did about her relationship with _my_ Rose.

"Get away from him," I snarled at her. "I know what you did to him, you pitiful excuse for an existence."

She narrowed her eyes at me, causing Rose to shake more. "D-Don't antagonize her, D-Danny," Rose whispered urgently to me. "S-She'll j-just hurt y-you..." Rose dropped his voice to a whisper and he hissed into my ear, "_Danny, she's a ghost!_" I felt my own neon green eyes widen at that news, looking her over. Now that Rose mentioned it, I could see the very thin red glow of an evil ghost. _"And she can hide her ghostly form!"_ Rose shook more, backing away from both of us very, very carefully.

"Oh, Shadow darling," Vanessa purred; Rose stopped in his track and shivered uncontrollably, panic pouring off him in waves. "Wouldn't you be so kind as to walk with Mummy?"

***line break***

Rose had had no choice but to walk alongside his biological mother (nicknamed "the monster") and he led her to an empty alleyway, where he changed back into his human form and led her to FentonWorks.

She acted nice and pleasant to my parents and Jazz, not seeming to notice their cold stares and voices, not seeming to notice how Rose disappeared to my room the moment he could. I noticed, and I was sure that Jazz noticed too. But we didn't say anything. My father put her in the guest room, and she politely and way too sweetly thanked him.

Later, I heard her talking to Rose in her room. I entered invisibly and watched on.

"I know he loves me," Rose told his mother, tears shining in his hair and eye.

"Loves you? Please, Rose, that's demented. _This_ is why you never should have left!" Rose flinched away from Vanessa and it took all my strength not to attack her. "Dear, this whole romance that you've invented just _proves_ that you're too naive to be here..." The woman took on a pitying look and took a step towards Rose, ignoring his step back. She let her hand brush across his cheek, ignoring his whine of fear. "Why would he love you? Come on now - _really! _Look at you!" She gestured to his baggy clothes, the ones that I adored to no end on him. Rose stared defiantly (with only the tiniest bit of fear - I was proud of him) back at her, refusing to look at his clothes. "You think that he's impressed?" Vanessa's tone changed, a silky smooth tone that was very convincing. "Don't be a dummy, come with Mummy... Mother-"

"No!" Rose shouted, startling her. His defiant gaze changed to one of absolute terror, and it took yet again all my might not to step in. I wanted to know exactly what she would do if she thought she was alone with him.

"No?" Vanessa's eyes hardened and narrowed. "Oh. I see how it is." She stalked a circle around Rose, glaring at him. He flinched and trembled, unable to get away from her. She blocked him at every turn. "_Rose_ knows best, Rose is so mature now, such a clever grown-up, yes. _Rose_ knows best, **_fine_** if you're so sure now, go ahead and give him _this!"_

She threw him a black crystal rose, the one that he used to take such precious care of. It was still in full bloom, unwilted and undying. I used to love it along with him; it had always drawn my eye, and I used to ask him if I could have it. When he had told me in a whisper that his mother had given it to him for his birthday, a rare time when she hadn't been drunk and had been sober and nice enough to remember and get him something, I'd stopped asking. But I remembered always wanting it, because it was really pretty. Rose flinched as he caught it, the sharp crystal thorns digging into his palms.

She barked a cold, cruel laugh. "_This _is why he's here! Don't let him deceive you!" Vanessa spat into Rose's face. Rose shrunk down with a whimper, blood beading at the end of the rose from the thorns cutting into his hands. "Give it to him, watch, you'll see! Trust me, my dear, that's how fast he'll leave, I won't say I _told you so-_" Vanessa cut herself off, a devilish smirk appearing on her face. It was demonic and terrifying. "No, _Rose_ knows best! So if he's such a dreamboat, go and put him-" Vanessa roared into my poor boyfriend's face, "-_to the test!"_

Now I was stopping myself from throwing ectoblasts at her, or even better shoving her into the Fenton thermos. A nice long time in there would teach her not to hurt him...

"If he's _lying, _don't come _crying! **Mother knows best!**_"

Rose whimpered, tears spilling down his cheek. That settled it for me. Vanessa would never ever ever be allowed to be alone with my poor Rose. Ever. Not if I could help it. I would put Jazz and Sam and Tucker on watch too. She would not get the chance to hurt him like this again.

I didn't tell Rose that I knew why he was crying when he came up to me later that night, his pretty black rose in a vase made of shadowy black crystal. But I did tell him that I was glad he'd found it again; when he told me that he wanted me to have it, I told him that I was happy he was sharing it with me, as I hadn't forgotten that his mother had gotten it for him on the one birthday when she wasn't drunk.

I felt his smile as I kissed him.

**THIS CHAPTER IS TOO SHORT FOR HOW LONG I MADE YOU GUYS WAIT I'M SORRY**


	22. Chapter 22

Rose seemed somewhat less subdued that morning, despite the monster forcing me to sit across from him instead of next to him. Last night, I had spent a lot of time crafting his black rose into a wearable little trinket, which he was very surprised to be given this morning and which he was wearing right now. It clipped perfectly to his hair above his eye, holding it out of the way. He could see much better now.

Vanessa really wasn't happy with it, that much I could tell. She glowered at me, and I glared right back. My signature 'scary eyes' look, as the fruitloop Vlad had often said. Rose was chatting with me very animatedly, purposely speaking a little louder than normal so that she would have to hear just how happy he was that I had made his rose into a hair clip for him.

If looks could kill, I would be fully dead.

***line break***

Rose stuck close to me the entire day. He charmed the teachers into allowing partner work with our own picked partners; he managed to get Mr. Lancer to let me off detention for being late because of a ghost attack in the hallway; he even somehow convinced Mrs. Tetslaf that running the mile wasn't a very good idea because it looked like it was going to rain (the sky _was_ cloudy...) and that we should stick inside and play dodgeball.

Rose went ghost to help me fight off a couple of ghosts even though he was terrified of Vanessa showing up again, and that was when I was clued in that something was seriously wrong. Rose was _never_ afraid. Shadow was soon the one talking to me, which Rose warned me might happen. Shadow was seething with Vanessa's return into Rose's life. Well, half-life.

The moment the monster showed up, she knew that Rose was not the one in control. After the fight, he landed and gave her a cold stare. She seemed lost for a moment, before she smiled brightly (and very falsely) and exclaimed, "Oh, Shadow dear, that was simply-"

"Shut it." Shadow looked almost bored, not a trace of emotion on his face except for annoyance. "You know you aren't my mother, so why try to fake it?"

The monster's face twisted into a smirk. "Darling," she purred venomously, "you've made a very big mistake."

She lunged for him, and he deftly dodged. "You know," he chuckled, "if you're trying to hit me, you're doing poorly. _My_ mother knows how to catch me." He dodged her again, floating in the air now, teasing her. "My mother doesn't even look remotely like you. She's a ghost too; she's got nice punk-style green hair, red eyes, and a boyfriend. You look like a lonely fruitloop, just like Plasmius."

She jumped to try and grab his hair, but he twisted away from her and floated just out of her reach. He taunted her, coming so tantalizingly close, and then darting away from her... He mock-saluted her and disappeared in a puff of black smoke; in his place stood a giant black dog. It lowered its head to her, sniffed her once, and barked.

Vanessa screamed and ran off.

***line break***

When Vanessa confronted Rose about scaring her in the park by turning into the ghost dog, he looked at her innocently and said, "I wasn't at the park, _Mother._" He made the word _mother_ sound like an insult instead of a title that demanded respect. When she fumed, he smiled at her and skittered off. I was quick to follow him, eager to keep her chances of getting him alone minimal.

"I really do like the hair clip, Danny," Rose purred, clambering into my lap as I sat down on my bed. His hair was really soft; how did he get it like that? His face was pressed against my collarbone and I could feel him gently sniffing me. In a normal situation, it would be really weird. But Rose and I had never really been normal. Coupled with ghost senses, Rose also had the senses of a dog. He could read my emotions much easier than I could read his, and he could see things that no other could. Such as hidden ghost portals.

I didn't doubt that he'd be able to tell if someone was overshadowed, possessed, or being mind-controlled. He'd be able to tell if someone was impersonating someone else as well. "No matter how good the disguise, scents don't lie." Rose liked to jokingly say that to me sometimes, but I had taken it to heart. Scent really couldn't lie.

Rose's eye flashed red and he stiffened. "She's right outside the door," he muttered, reluctantly leaving my lap. We got out our homework and sat with our backs facing each other, leaning on each other. When the monster entered the room, all she saw were too kids doing their homework.

I wanted to test out a new power I had recently been developing - telekinesis. So I focused on the small, unbreakable objects in our room that weren't bolted down and lifted them. There weren't many. I flicked them at her, making her duck. Except for a green glow around my eyes (which was easily hidden with the fact that my back was to her), no one would know that I had done that.

"Is there something you want, Mother?" Rose said without looking up; I could feel him trembling slightly. She terrified him, which was perfectly reasonable considering she'd let Plasmius burn his eye out. \

But I would not allow her to hurt him again. I swore on my half-life and whatever afterlife I would have after I died to that. She would never be able to hurt my Rose again. Not if I had anything to do with it.

And trust me, I would.

**Okay guys, so I want to know something. Would you guys be okay if I had the third story (which comes after this one) be a crossover with Teen Titans? If not, just say so.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Okay, I will ****_not_**** be making part 3 a crossover. A guest pointed out to me that if you didn't know what the Teen Titans was about, then you'd have to do research and no one wants to read a story that they had to do research on. But I ****_will_**** be writing a story related to this one as a Danny Phantom/Teen Titans crossover. Free internet cookies and a lifetime of friendship from me if you guess the character(s) right. HINT: IT WILL NOT BE DANNY AND ROSE**

Rose flicked his claws experimentally. Ectoplasm spattered onto the pavement, cleaning his hand somewhat. A puddle of green had already begun to form at his feet. His hand continued to drip.

"Funny," he laughed darkly, staring at the green ectoplasm, "you'd think that the ectoplasm would evaporate..."

I stared at him in horror; as Vanessa's presence took its toll on him, he had begun acting more and more like this. I turned my attention to the person he'd just slashed, knowing it was true even though I didn't see how. He had been destroyed. He should not exist.

But there Vlad Plasmius stood, ectoplasm dripping from his sliced open arm.

***line break***

"Rose, what was that?" I asked him meekly. Vanessa had been here for two weeks now; every day Rose got more violent.

"Nothing," he muttered sullenly, his mood depressed and angry. He didn't want to talk to me. "...She's helping him."

"What?"

"She's. Helping. Him." His words were strained and growled out in warbled Ghost. It took me a moment to understand what he meant.

I sighed and grabbed Rose's hand. The purple-haired boy had rinsed off all the ectoplasm and what was left on his hand were a few small scratches that oozed a mixture of blood and the green goop. Vanessa was corrupting little Rose, I knew she was. The more sullen he seemed, the happier she became. "We need to get you out of here then, Rose."

"Won't do any good. Her influence is really really strong... the only way to get rid of her to end her afterlife."

"I would suggest your Wail, but after today... not after we saw that Plasmius came back..." I trailed off, and Rose sighed. He leaned against me and tugged me downstairs, phasing me through the floor and into the lab.

"Come on. We might be able to find Clockwork, he might help us." Rose stepped into the portal, dragging me along. When had he developed such a sway over me? Anything that might be dangerous that he was going to do now required my presence. Maybe I was just overprotective. But if he got hurt again... well, I wouldn't be able to stand it.

***line break***

We didn't find Clockwork. He wasn't at his tower and he was nowhere to be found in the Ghost Zone. Though, Rose's time in the Ghost Zone with just me seemed to work wonders. He became a lot more cheerful; perhaps going into another dimension made the monster's influence unreachable.

I went through the Fenton Portal first, making sure that no one was waiting for us when we exited. Rose blinked and sniffed the air. "Wow. Getting away form her really cleared my head."

"Good." I petted his hair softly, and he didn't complain. Having a boyfriend who could turn into a ghost dog really worked wonders; Rose didn't mind being touched so much anymore, though I was still the only one who was allowed to pet his hair. "Do you have a plan for getting rid of Plasmius and your wretch of a biological mother once and for all?"

"No," he mumbled. Then his eyes hardened. "But that's not gonna stop me from taking them out. Vanessa is working with him, which means either they both go... or we both go."

I stared at him. "Rose, that's a little... dark."

He waved off my comment, smiling like an idiot. "What, you haven't noticed that until now?"

***line break***

We've made a plan. We're going to trap Plasmius and Vanessa and give them to the Observants. The Observants had agreed to contain and keep watch over them. All that we need to do now is actually trap them. We've both got a thermos, one for each enemy, because there's no way that both of their ectosignatures would fit into one thermos.

"We'll win," Rose said confidently. "I know that we will. The battle might go on for a while... but we'll win in the end. We always do."

"You got that right, Rose," I crowed, slinging my arm around his shoulders. He nuzzled my collarbone for a second, making sure that I was still me, before his purple rings appeared around his waist. They spread in opposite directions, but as soon as the top one touched his collarbone they became vertical,spreading left and right. His rings activated mine, and mine spread vertical as well.

"Man," I laughed, "that trick will never cease to amaze me."

"I'm surprised you know what the word 'cease' means and can use it properly in a sentence."

"Hey...! I'm doing good in Mr. Lancer's class this year! I've got a B!"

"Yeah, because I motivate you to do your homework. _I've_ got an A+."

"Oh, shut up."

***line break***

The park was crowded when we got there. Rose crackled with electricity when he saw Vanessa, and the electricity grazed her shoulder. That was what alerted her to us. She looked from me to Rose, but when her gaze landed on Rose she stiffened in surprise (or fear. Hard to tell from the air). I chanced a glance over to him and felt my own eyes widen in surprise. His one eye had turned red again, and his pupil had slit like a cat's.

This didn't really worry me though. It meant that Rose was angry and couldn't be influenced by anything other than himself. It also meant that it was impossible to tell what he was going to do, though.

Just as the growling started up in his throat, Vanessa smirked and said very loudly, "I wish Shadow and Danny Phantom were gone from here and had altered memories and no one remembered them!"

Desiree appeared, but she didn't grant the wish right away. "That's a big wish. Something like that requires a prophecy."

"Then so be it."

Desiree's one revealed eye widened in pleasure. "So you have wished it, and so it shall be!"

And then everything

went

blank.

***line break***

**Sam's POV**

They were gone.

Just like that.

Vanessa, the monster, had wished them away... Danny had been telling Tucker and I what Vanessa was doing to Rose, and we had eagerly tried to help. Our help had to stop when Rose nearly took off Tucker's hand. But we made sure that both of them knew we were still there to help. They had told us the plan.

And now the plan wouldn't work. Desiree began to recite the prophecy, and I found myself hanging on her every word. I needed to know what would happen to them...

_"Two have disappeared without memory;_

_Two with the power to undo this treachery;_

_Those who remember are those who were closest;_

_Those who forgot are those who were unnoticed;_

_Find those with memory altered before two years pass;_

_Or memory will forever be lost in the past."_

And then she was gone. Just like that, everything changed. _"Two with the power to undo their treachery..." _We were the closest to Danny and Rose in terms of friendship, and we haven't forgotten. We have the power to undo this.

"Tucker," I said firmly, "let's go find our friends."

"Way ahead of you," Tucker deadpanned, already looking something up on his PDA. "Way ahead of you."

**YES I ENDED IT RIGHT HERE AHAHHAHA. I'm evil yeah. The next part will probably be from mixed POVs, usually Rose but sometimes Sam or Tucker or maybe even Jazz just to give you guys an insight into what they're doing. Probably. I might just turn out to be evil. Anyway you guys, I hope you liked this installment! Part 3 will be the final part but I will be writing related stories that aren't necessarily important to this storyline. **

**Peace out, guys!**


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